These Regulations may be cited as the Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay (Persons Abroad and Mariners) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2002 and shall come into operation on 8th December 2002.

In these Regulations–

• “the Act” means the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992;

• “adopter”, in relation to a child, has the same meaning as it has in the General Regulations;

• “the Contributions Regulations” means the Social Security Contributions Regulations 20015;

• “EEA” means European Economic Area;

• “EEA Agreement” means the Agreement on the European Economic Area signed at Oporto on 2nd May 19926 as adjusted by Protocol signed at Brussels on 17th March 19937;

• “EEA State” means a State which is a contracting party to the EEA Agreement;

• “the General Regulations” means the Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 20028;

• “statutory paternity pay (birth)” and “statutory paternity pay (adoption)” have the same meaning as they have in the General Regulations;

• “week” means a period of 7 days beginning with Sunday.

For the purposes of these Regulations, a person is notified of having been matched with a child for the purposes of adoption on the date on which he receives notification, under regulation 11(2) of the Adoption Agencies Regulations (Northern Ireland) 19899 or regulation 11(2) of the Adoption Agencies Regulations 198310 or regulation 12(3) of the Adoption Agencies (Scotland) Regulations 199611, that an adoption agency has decided that the person would be a suitable adoptive parent for the child, either individually or jointly with another person.