The Time Off to Attend Adoption Appointments (Prospective Adopters) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations extend the right to time off to attend adoption appointments in Articles 85ZJ, 85ZL, 85ZN or 85ZP of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 (“the 1996 Order”) to approved foster parents who are also approved prospective adopters of a child in certain circumstances.

In order to do so, regulation 2 defines a specified condition for entitlement for the purposes of Article 85ZS(2)(b) of the 1996 Order. Other conditions of entitlement are defined within Article 85ZS itself.

Regulation 3 treats certain references in Articles 85ZJ, 85ZL, 85ZN and 85ZP as references appropriate to situations where a child is fostered with a view to being adopted. The effect is to apply rights to paid and unpaid time off work for adoption appointments to members of this group, once in receipt of appropriate notification.

An impact assessment has not been prepared for these Regulations. These Regulations are part of a package of legislative measures and the relevant impacts were assessed within the document ‘Sharing parental rights, extending flexibility at work – public consultation’, published in May 2013 (www.delni.gov.uk/index/consultation-zone/archived-consultations/archived-consultations-2013/working-parents-rights.htm), and supplemented by a further publication in April 2014 (www.delni.gov.uk/index/publications/equality-good-relations/shared-parental-leave-and-pay.htm).