The Additional Paternity Leave Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2010

Interpretation

2.—(1) In these Regulations—

“the 1996 Order” means the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996;

“additional paternity leave” means leave under regulation 4 or regulation 14;

“adopter” in relation to a child, means a person who has been matched with the child for adoption and who has elected to take adoption leave in order to care for the child;

“adoption agency” has the meaning given, in relation to Northern Ireland, by Article 3(3) of the Adoption (Northern Ireland) Order 1987(1), in relation to England and Wales, by section 2 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002(2), and in relation to Scotland, by section 119(1) of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007(3);

“adoption leave” means ordinary adoption leave under section 107A of the 1996 Order or additional adoption leave under Article 107B of that Order(4);

“child” means a person who is, or when placed with an adopter for adoption was, under the age of eighteen;

“expected week”, in relation to the birth of a child, means the week beginning with midnight between Saturday and Sunday, in which it is expected that the child will be born;

“job”, in relation to an employee returning after additional paternity leave, means the nature of the work which the employee is employed to do in accordance with the employee’s contract of employment and the capacity and place in which the employee is so employed;

“maternity allowance” has the meaning given in section 35(1) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992(5);

“maternity leave” means ordinary maternity leave under Article 103 of the 1996 Order or additional maternity leave under Article 105 of that Order(6);

“parental leave” means leave under regulation 13(1) of the Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1999(7);

“partner”, in relation to a child’s mother or adopter, means a person (whether of a different sex or the same sex) who lives with the mother or adopter and the child in an enduring family relationship but is not a relative of the mother or adopter of a kind specified in paragraph (2);

“processing”, in relation to information, has the meaning given in section 1(1) of the Data Protection Act 1998(8);

“statutory adoption pay” has the meaning given in section 167ZL of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992(9);

“statutory maternity pay” has the meaning given in Article 160(1) of the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992; and

“statutory leave” means leave provided for in Part 9 of the 1996 Order.

(2) The relatives of a child’s mother or adopter referred to in the definition of “partner” in paragraph (1) are the mother’s or adopter’s parent, grandparent, sister, brother, aunt or uncle.

(3) References to relationships in paragraph (2)—

(a) are to relationships of the full blood or half blood or, in the case of an adopted person, such of those relationships as would exist but for the adoption, and

(b) include the relationship of a child with the child’s adoptive, or former adoptive parents, but do not include any other adoptive relationships.

(4) For the purposes of these Regulations—

(a) a person is matched with a child for adoption when an adoption agency decides that that person would be a suitable adoptive parent for the child;

(b) a person is notified of having been matched with a child on the date on which the person receives notification of the agency’s decision, under regulation 11(2) of the Adoption Agencies Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1989(10), regulation 33(3)(a) of the Adoption Agencies Regulations 2005(11), regulation 28(3) of the Adoption Agencies (Wales) Regulations 2005(12) or regulation 8(5) of the Adoption Agencies (Scotland) Regulations 2009(13).

(5) A reference in any provision of these Regulations to a period of continuous employment is to a period computed in accordance with Chapter 3 of Part 1 of the 1996 Order, as if that provision were a part of that Order.

(1)

S.I. 1987/2203 (N.I. 22); Article 3(3) was amended by S.I. 1994/429 (N.I. 2).

(2)

2002 c. 38.

(3)

2007 asp. 4.

(4)

Articles 107A and 107B were inserted by Article 3 of the Employment (Northern Ireland) Order 2002 and were amended by paragraphs 32 and 33 respectively of Schedule 1 to the Work and Families (Northern Ireland) Order 2006.

(5)

1992 c. 7. Subsection 1 was substituted by Article 50(1) of the Welfare Reform and Persons (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 (S.I. 1999/3147 (N.I. 11)) and was further amended by paragraph 2(a) of Schedule 1 to the Social Security Act (Northern Ireland) 2002 (2002 c. 10 (N.I.)).

(6)

Articles 103 and 105 were substituted by Schedule 4 Part 1 of the Employment Relations (Northern Ireland) Order 1999 and amended by Article 14 of the Employment (Northern Ireland) Order 2002 and by paragraphs 30 and 31 respectively of the Work and Families (Northern Ireland) Order 2006.

(7)

S.R. 1999 No. 471; regulation 13(1) was amended by S.R. 2002 No. 135.

(8)

1998 c. 29.

(9)

Section 167ZL was inserted by Article 6 of the Employment (Northern Ireland) Order 2002.

(10)

S.R. 1989 No. 253.

(11)

S.I. 2005/389, to which there are amendments not relevant to these Regulations.

(12)

S.I. 2005/1313.

(13)

S.S.I. 2009/154.