# The Paternity and Adoption Leave (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015, Note: Explanatory note


(This note is not part of the Regulations)
These Regulations amend the Paternity and Adoption Leave Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2002 (“the 2002 Regulations”).
The amendments:
remove the requirement for a qualifying period of service of 26 weeks before an employee is entitled to adoption leave, making statutory adoption leave a ‘day one’ right (regulation 7(c) to (e));
adjust the right to return after paternity or adoption leave to take account of shared parental leave (regulation 6);
extend to foster parents who are prospective adopters new rights to adoption leave if they have been notified that a child is to be placed with them (‘fostering for adoption’ arrangements) (much of regulation 3 is relevant);
provide new rights to paternity leave to the spouses, civil partners and partners of these prospective adopters (again, much of regulation 3 is relevant);
provide for an employee’s adoption leave to terminate early if the child’s placement as part of a fostering for adoption arrangement is terminated and the child is returned to the adoption agency (regulation 8);
prevent an employee from taking paternity leave if the employee—
has already taken shared parental leave (regulations 4 and 5);
has already exercised a right to take paid time off to attend an adoption appointment in respect of the same child (regulation 5);
has already taken paternity leave as part of a fostering for adoption arrangement for the same child (regulation 5);
prevent an employee from taking adoption leave, if the employee has already done so as part of a fostering for adoption arrangement for the same child (regulation 7(a) and (b)); and
protect employees who suffer a detriment or who are dismissed in relation to time off work for ante-natal or adoption appointments (regulations 10 to 13).
An impact assessment has not been prepared for these Regulations. These Regulations are part of a package of legislative measures and the relevant impacts were assessed within the document ‘Sharing parental rights, extending flexibility at work – public consultation’, published in May 2013 (www.delni.gov.uk/index/consultation-zone/archived-consultations/archived-consultations-2013/working-parents-rights.htm), and supplemented by a further publication in April 2014 (www.delni.gov.uk/index/publications/equality-good-relations/shared-parental-leave-and-pay.htm).

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Source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/nisr/2015/87/note (the official version)
Page: https://openlegislation.uk/paternity-and-adoption-leave-amendment-regulations-northern-ireland-2015/note
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives.