I have a male employee who has asked for a period of additional paternity leave beginning in March 2012, but our current Parental Leave Policy only makes provision for 2 weeks statutory paternity leave. How do I handle it?


Amanda Magee writes:

Since the implementation of the Additional Paternity Leave Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010 (the Regulations), which apply in relation to children due or placed for adoption on or after 3 April 2011, fathers or other eligible employees have the benefit of up to 26 weeks of additional paternity leave over and above the two weeks statutory paternity leave previously available, if the child’s mother or adopter returns to work without exercising their full entitlement to maternity or adoption leave.


Additional Paternity Leave (APL):

• Must be taken as one continuous period;
• Must be for full weeks;
• Can be for a period of between 2 and 26 weeks; and
• May be taken at any time between the 20th and 52nd week after the child is born or placed for adoption.

The eligibility requirements for APL to a large extent mirror those for ordinary paternity leave. The employee must:
- Have been continuously employed by you for at least 26 weeks prior to the relevant week;
- Remain in continuous employment with you until the week before the first week of APL;
- Be the child’s father; married to, the partner or civil partner of the child’s mother or adopter; and
- Have, or expect to have, the main responsibility (apart from the mother) for bringing up the child or have been matched with the child for adoption.


As an employer, you are entitled to receive at least 8 weeks’ notice of an employee’s intention to take APL, and must be provided with the following documents from the employee:

• A written “leave notice” specifying: the relevant week; the child’s date of birth or placement for adoption; and the employee’s chosen start and finish dates for their period of APL;
• A signed “employee declaration” stating that the purpose of the APL will be to care for the child and that the employee meets the eligibility criteria outlined above; and
• A written “mother/adopter declaration” stating: the mother/adopter’s name, address and national insurance number; the date on which they intend to return to work; that the employee is either the child’s father or is their spouse, partner or civil partner; that to her knowledge the employee is the only person exercising the entitlement to APL in respect of the child (birth cases only); and that they consent to the employer processing the information they have provided in the declaration.

Within 28 days of receiving the employee’s leave notice you must confirm the relevant dates to the employee in writing. You are also entitled to request a copy of the child’s birth certificate, documentary evidence from the relevant adoption agency, and the name and address of the mother/adopter’s employer in order to verify that the information provided by the employee and the child’s mother/adopter is correct. If you request such information, the employee must provide it to you within 28 days of the request being made.

If the employee wishes to withdraw their application for APL or change the start or end date of the period of APL, they must give you at least 6 weeks’ written notice and you must respond within 28 days.

During APL an employee is entitled to the benefit of all their employment terms (except those about remuneration) which would have applied had the employee not been absent. Furthermore, an employee who qualifies for APL is entitled to return to the job in which they were employed before their leave (so long as their period of APL lasted no longer than 26 weeks), to return to the same terms and conditions of employment and not to be subjected to a disadvantage, unfair treatment or dismissal.


Additional Statutory Paternity Pay


Additional statutory paternity pay (ASPP) is available only to the extent that the child’s mother or adopter returns to work with an amount of their statutory maternity/adoption pay still intact. Accordingly, ASPP is payable for a maximum of 19 weeks and will cease to be payable once the statutory maternity/adoption pay period ends.

ASPP is paid at the lower of £128.73 (from 3 April 2011) or 90% of the employee’s average weekly earnings.

Although, in practice, requests for APL have not been as frequent as first envisaged, employers should ensure that their policies and procedures have been updated to make provision for APL and are clear on the benefits that parents on APL are entitled to receive. Employers should also be aware of the risks of potential discrimination claims where greater benefits are given to women on maternity leave than employees on APL, and consider the difficulties that may arise in redundancy situations in dealing with the competing rights of mothers and fathers on maternity, paternity or adoption leave over who should be given preference if more than one employee is entitled to be offered a suitable alternative vacancy.