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8th November 2007

NEWS IN BRIEF

The government recently announced that although it still intends to extend statutory maternity and adoption leave and pay, it will not now do so by April 2009.

It still insists, however, that Statutory Maternity Pay, Maternity Allowance and Statutory Adoption Pay will increase from 39 weeks to 52 weeks and Additional Paternity Leave and Pay will be introduced by the end of this Parliament. This would give employed fathers a right to take up to an additional 26 weeks off work with pay to care for their child in its first year, if the mother has returned to work and had not used her full entitlement to paid maternity leave.

Although the government is still on target to introduce these changes by the end of this Parliament, it says that it has not yet decided on an implementation date. Having previously announced that the changes would not be implemented in April 2008, it has now taken the view that “to give employers some clarity and further time to make their preparations the Government has decided that these changes will not be implemented in April 2009.”

In practice that means that the government will now start planning for implementation for babies due on or after April 2010. It says “this should not be taken to imply any timing decisions have been taken. It is simply a pragmatic approach. We will not be planning for implementation in October 2009.”

To read the notice in full, go to: www.hmrc.gov.uk/statutory-notices/paternity-leave-pay.htm

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