The Law on Shared Parental Leave

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The Children and Families Act 2014 came into force on 13 March 2014 and changed the law to allow Shared Parental Leave (SPL) (Part 7). It also gives the Secretary of State power to make regulations setting out the detail of the new system.Shared Parental Leave (SPL) allows you and your partner to share parental leave and Statutory Shared Parental Pay (ShPP)..

• It replaces additional paternity leave.
• It is separate from the right to unpaid parental leave.
• It does not replace maternity leave and pay.
• It applies to adoption and surrogacy.
• It applies to same sex partnerships.

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Regulations 

Shared Parental Leave Regulations 2014 set out;

• the right to take shared parental leave once maternity leave has been brought to an end
• the period available for shared parental leave and how this can be taken
• the eligibility criteria for taking the leave
• provisions on how notifications and requests should be made
• provisions on terms and conditions during leave, the right to return to work and protections from detriment or dismissal for taking the leave, and
• an increase to ‘Keeping in touch’ days.

The Paternity and Adoption Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2014 make amendments to the introduction of shared parental leave, and other adoption and paternity rights.

Statutory Shared Parental Pay (General) Regulations 2014 set out the eligibility conditions for claiming shared parental pay and details of the notifications that must be given to the employer.

Maternity and Adoption Leave (Curtailment of Statutory Rights to Leave) Regulations 2014 allows maternity leave to end earlier and be replaced by SPL.

Maternity Allowance(Curtailment) Regulations 2014 as well as the Statutory Maternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay (Curtailment) Regulations 2014 allows statutory maternity/adoption pay or maternity allowance to be ended earlier and be replaced by SPL.