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Explanatory note

Original text. Later amendments are not shown.

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Statutory Maternity Pay (Compensation of Employers) and Miscellaneous Amendment Regulations 1994 (S.I. 1994/1882) (“the principal GB Regulations”) and the Statutory Maternity Pay (Compensation of Employers) and Miscellaneous Amendment Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1994 (S.R. 1994 No. 271) (“the principal NI Regulations”).

These Regulations provide for the funding of employers liabilities to make payments of statutory maternity pay and allow for deductions from payments due from employers to the Commissioners of Inland Revenue (“the Board”) and for payments to employers by the Board. They also allow for the recovery of funds provided by the Board to employers in certain circumstances.

Regulations 2 and 7 of these Regulations amend regulation 1 of the principal GB Regulations and of the principal NI Regulations, principally to insert new definitions.

Regulations 3 and 8 of these Regulations make minor drafting changes to regulation 3 of the principal GB Regulations and of the principal NI Regulations which deal with the determination of the additional amount to which a small employer who makes payments of statutory maternity pay is entitled.

Regulations 4 and 9 of these Regulations substitute new regulations 4, 5, 6 and insert new regulation 6A in the principal GB Regulations and in the principal NI Regulations.

  • New regulation 4 makes minor drafting changes to regulation 4 of the principal GB Regulations and of the principal NI Regulations which specify the amount of statutory maternity pay an employer may recover.

  • New regulation 5 allows applications to be made by an employer to the Board for funds (“advance funding”) to pay statutory maternity pay which an employer is required to pay to his employees in specified circumstances.

  • New regulation 6 allows an employer to recover statutory maternity pay by making deductions from certain payments to the Board.

  • New Regulation 6A allows for payments to employers by the Board in specified circumstances.

Regulations 5 and 10 of these Regulations make minor drafting changes to regulation 7 of the principal GB Regulations and of the principal NI Regulations which deal with the date on which certain National Insurance contributions are to be treated as paid.

Regulations 6 and 11 of these Regulations insert new regulation 7A in the principal GB Regulations and in the principal NI Regulations to allow for the recovery of overpayments by the Board where advance funding has been provided to the employer where it appears to an officer of the Board that the employer has not used those funds to pay statutory maternity pay.

These Regulations are made with the concurrence of the Board. An assessment of the cost to business of the proposals for these Regulations was made in connection with the Employment Act 2002. Copies of that assessment have been placed in the libraries of both Houses of Parliament and can be obtained by post from the Department for Trade and Industry, Employment Relations Directorate, 1 Victoria Street, London SW1 OET.