Who is entitled to paternity leave?

The paternity leave regulations apply to parents to-be whose partners are giving birth or adopting a child. You are entitled to paid paternity leave if:

• you have been continuously employed by your current employer for 26 weeks or more by the 15th week before the baby is due; and
• you are the father of the child and expect to have responsibility for the child; or
• you are married to, or are the partner of, the child’s mother, but are not the child’s father, and you expect to have the main responsibility along with the mother for the upbringing of the child.

You are entitled to take either one week or two consecutive weeks’ ordinary paternity leave. The period in which you must take your leave will begin on the day the child is born and finish 56 days after the day the child is born. Paternity leave applies to people in same-sex partnerships as well as heterosexual partnerships.

Also, for children born on or after 3 April 2011, a father (with the mother’s agreement) will be able to take additional paternity leave. Specifically, under the Additional Paternity Leave Regulations 2010, mothers will have the option to transfer all or part (a minimum of two weeks) of their additional maternity leave (the second six month period) to fathers.

This leave cannot be taken before the baby is 20 weeks old and is paid under the statutory scheme  (either £128.73 per week, or nothing, if in the final 3 months of the maternity leave).

However, although the statutory scheme is not generous, where an employer offers enhanced maternity pay to mothers, someone taking additional paternity leave would be being discriminated against if s/he was not paid the same higher rate by his or her employer.