The Paternity Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024, if enacted in their current form will make the following changes: –
- Employees will be able to take their paternity leave as 2 separate weeks rather than being required to take either just a single week or 2 consecutive weeks.
- The leave will be able to be taken at any time in the 52 weeks after the birth (rather than being limited to 56 days after the birth).
- Employees will only require to give 28 days’ notice of intention to take paternity leave (reduced from the 15th week before the expected week of childbirth).
The regulations are expected to come into force in April 2024 at the same time as a variety of other family friendly legal changes previously highlighted to members, including Carers Leave, Flexible Working and Extension of Redundancy Protection to include pregnancy and a period of time following maternity, adoption and shared parental leave.
Please contact a member of the Legal & HR Team if you need to consider reviewing any policies in these areas.
