28Duty to enable participation: arrangements subsequently notified
(1)This section applies where—
(a)a person to whom this Part applies is employed under a relevant contract of employment, and
(b)after commencement of the employment the person notifies the employer in accordance with subsection (4) of appropriate arrangements which the person has made.
(2)The employer must, so far as is reasonable having regard to the matters mentioned in subsection (3), permit the person to participate in training or education in accordance with those appropriate arrangements.
(3)Those matters are—
(a)the needs of the person in order to fulfil the duty imposed by section 2;
(b)the circumstances of the employer’s business;
(c)the effect of the person’s absence from work on the running of that business.
(4)A person notifies an employer of appropriate arrangements in accordance with this subsection by giving a notice which—
(a)specifies the arrangements,
(b)states the times when the employee needs to be not at work in order to participate in education or training in accordance with those arrangements, and
(c)if so required under subsection (5), is given in writing.
(5)Such a notice need not be given in writing but, if it is not, the employer may, on the occasion when the notice is given, require it to be given in writing; and, if the employer does so, the notice is not to be treated as having been given until given in writing.
(6)The obligation in subsection (2) operates as a requirement, in relation to each of the times specified in the notice under subsection (4)(b) which falls during normal working time, for the employer—
(a)to offer to vary the terms and conditions of the contract of employment so as to secure that, so far as is reasonable having regard to the matters mentioned in subsection (3), that time does not fall during normal working time, or
(b)so far as is reasonable having regard to those matters, to permit the employee to take that time off.
(7)In this section, “normal working time”, in relation to a contract of employment, means any time when, in accordance with the contract, the employee is required to be at work.