{
  "url": "https://openlegislation.uk/social-security-statutory-maternity-pay-and-statutory-sick-pay-miscellaneous-amendments-regulations-2002/note",
  "json_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/social-security-statutory-maternity-pay-and-statutory-sick-pay-miscellaneous-amendments-regulations-2002/note.json",
  "legislation": "uksi/2002/2690",
  "legislation_title": "The Social Security, Statutory Maternity Pay and Statutory Sick Pay (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2002",
  "legislation_url": "https://openlegislation.uk/social-security-statutory-maternity-pay-and-statutory-sick-pay-miscellaneous-amendments-regulations-2002",
  "path": "note",
  "kind": "note",
  "number": null,
  "heading": "Explanatory note",
  "text": "(This note is not part of the Regulations)\nThese Regulations amend the Social Security (Incapacity Benefit) Regulations 1994 (“the Social Security (Incapacity Benefit) Regulations”), the Statutory Maternity Pay (General) Regulations 1986 (“the Statutory Maternity Pay (General) Regulations”), the Statutory Maternity Pay (National Health Service Employees) Regulations 1991 (“the Statutory Maternity Pay (National Health Service Employees) Regulations”), the Statutory Sick Pay (General) Regulations 1982 (“the Statutory Sick Pay (General) Regulations”), the Social Security (Maternity Allowance) Regulations 1987 (“the Social Security (Maternity Allowance) Regulations”) and the Social Security (Maternity Allowance) (Earnings) Regulations 2000 (“the Social Security (Maternity Allowance) (Earnings) Regulations”), in consequence of Part 1 of the Employment Act 2002.\nThe Statutory Maternity Pay (General) Regulations are amended as follows—\nRegulation 2(2) provides for a womans maternity pay period (“MPP”) to commence where she gives notice to her employer that she expects his liability to pay her statutory maternity pay to begin and she ceases work in conformity with that notice.\nRegulation 2(3) extends the MPP to 26 consecutive weeks.\nRegulation 2(4) provides for a womans MPP to commence where she is confined before the 11th week before the expected week of confinement (“EWC”).\nRegulation 2(5) provides that where a woman is absent from work wholly or partly because of pregnancy or confinement, on or after the 4th week before her EWC that her MPP will commence on the day after the first day on which she is so absent.\nRegulation 2(8) provides a new meaning of “week” for the purposes of a woman’s MPP in respect of a woman whose MPP commences because of her confinement before the 11th week before the expected week of confinement or her absence from work wholly or partly because of pregnancy or confinement on or after the 4th week before the EWC.\nRegulation 3 prescribes a rate of statutory maternity pay under section 166(1)(b) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 (“the Contributions and Benefits Act”).\nRegulation 4 adds references to statutory paternity, statutory adoption and statutory parental leave to the circumstances in which a woman may be treated as employed and makes other minor drafting changes.\nRegulation 5 amends the meaning of “earnings” for the purposes of section 164(9)(b) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 by adding references to certain payments of maternity, adoption and paternity pay to the sums which may form part of a woman’s normal weekly earnings.\nRegulation 6 revokes regulation 21A.\nRegulation 7(2) amends regulation 23 by omitting the reference to a woman’s absence from work being wholly because of her confinement from the notice she must give to her employer.\nRegulation 7(3) amends the period within which a notice under regulation 23 is to be given from 21 days from the date of confinement to 28 days from that date.\nRegulation 7(4) substitutes a revised paragraph (4) in regulation 22(3) which provides that if a woman leaves her employment after the beginning of the week before the 14th week before her EWC she will be entitled statutory maternity pay without giving notice to her employer.\nRegulation 8 amends regulation 25A by making minor drafting changes to the requirements for employers to provide information about payments of statutory maternity pay and extends the period within which information must be supplied from 21 to 28 days.\nRegulation 9 makes a minor drafting change to regulation 28.\nRegulation 10 inserts regulations 7A and 7B in the Social Security (Incapacity Benefit) Regulations which deal with the effect of statutory maternity pay and statutory adoption pay respectively on incapacity benefit.\nThe Statutory Maternity Pay (National Health Service Employees) Regulations are amended as follows—\nRegulations 11 and 12 substitute 28 days for 21 days as the period of notice a woman must give her employer.\nThe Statutory Sick Pay (General) Regulations are amended as follows—\nRegulation 13 substitutes a reference to 4 weeks before the EWC in the case of women who are incapable of work wholly or partly because of pregnancy or confinement as the date on which a period of entitlement to statutory sick pay shall end or not arise.\nRegulation 14 amends regulation 17 to include references to certain sums payable by way of statutory adoption and statutory paternity pay in the expression “earnings” for the purposes of section 163(2) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992.\nThe Social Security (Maternity Allowance) Regulations are amended as follows—\nRegulation 15 amends regulation 3 to delete regulation 3(2) which previously modified the Maternity Allowance Period (“MAP”) where a woman was confined more than 11 weeks before the EWC and to increase to 26 weeks the MAP for women not entitled before 11 weeks before the EWC who subsequently become entitled before being confined.\nThe Social Security (Maternity Allowance) (Earnings) Regulations are amended as follows—\nRegulation 16 adds references to certain sums payable by way of statutory adoption pay and statutory paternity pay to the payments specified for an employed earner for the purposes of section 35A(4)(a) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992.\nRegulation 17 amends regulation 3(a) to substitute a reference to an amount 90% of which equals the weekly rate prescribed under section 166(1)(b) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992.\nRegulation 18 amends the provisions of regulation 4 to remove references to average payments.\nRegulation 19 amends regulation 5 to specify the test period as the specified period for the purpose of establishing a woman’s average weekly earnings.\nRegulation 20 amends regulation 6 to alter the averaging procedure for payments made or treated as made in the specified period.\nAn assessment of the costs to business of the proposals for these Regulations was made under the Employment Act 2002. Copies of this assessment are available from the House of Commons and House of Lords Libraries. Copies can be obtained by post from The Department for Trade and Industry, Employment Relations Directorate, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1H 0ET.",
  "extent": null,
  "status": null,
  "version": "current",
  "annotations": [],
  "outstanding_effects": [],
  "provenance": {
    "source": "legislation.gov.uk",
    "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2690/note",
    "retrieved_at": "2026-10-29T06:41:36.829177+00:00"
  },
  "licence": "Open Government Licence v3.0",
  "licence_url": "https://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3/",
  "attribution": "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Source: legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives."
}