Employment Rights Act 1996

[F1 57ZJ Right to paid time off to attend adoption appointments E+W+S

(1) An employee who has been notified by an adoption agency that a child is to be, or is expected to be, placed for adoption with the employee alone is entitled to be permitted by his or her employer to take time off during the employee's working hours in order that he or she may attend by appointment at any place for the purpose of having contact with the child or for any other purpose connected with the adoption.

(2) An employee who—

(a) has been notified by an adoption agency that a child is to be, or is expected to be, placed for adoption with the employee and another person jointly, and

(b) has elected to exercise the right to take time off under this section in connection with the adoption,

is entitled to be permitted by his or her employer to take time off during the employee's working hours in order that he or she may attend by appointment at any place for the purpose of having contact with the child or for any other purpose connected with the adoption.

(3) An employee may not make an election for the purposes of subsection (2)(b) if—

(a) the employee has made an election for the purposes of section 57ZL(1)(b) in connection with the adoption, or

(b) the other person with whom the child is to be, or is expected to be, placed for adoption has made an election for the purposes of subsection (2)(b) or section 57ZN(2)(b) in connection with the adoption.

(4) An employee is not entitled to take time off under this section on or after the date of the child's placement for adoption with the employee.

(5) In relation to any particular adoption, an employee is not entitled to take time off under this section on more than five occasions.

(6) On each of those occasions, the maximum time off during working hours to which the employee is entitled is six and a half hours.

(7) An employee is not entitled to take time off under this section unless the appointment has been arranged by or at the request of the adoption agency which made the notification described in subsection (1) or (2)(a).

(8) An employee is not entitled to take time off under subsection (1) unless, if the employer requests it, the employee gives the employer a document showing the date and time of the appointment in question and that it has been arranged as described in subsection (7).

(9) An employee is not entitled to take time off under subsection (2) unless, if the employer requests it, the employee gives the employer—

(a) a declaration signed by the employee stating that the employee has made an election for the purposes of subsection (2)(b) in connection with the adoption, and

(b) a document showing the date and time of the appointment in question and that it has been arranged as described in subsection (7).

(10) A document or declaration requested under subsection (8) or (9) may be given in electronic form.

(11) In cases where more than one child is to be, or is expected to be, placed for adoption with an employee as part of the same arrangement, this section has effect as if—

(a) the purposes specified in subsections (1) and (2) were the purpose of having contact with any one or more of the children and any other purpose connected with any of the adoptions that are part of the arrangement;

(b) the references in subsections (2)(b) and (9)(a) to the adoption were references to all of the adoptions that are part of the arrangement;

(c) the references in subsection (3) to the adoption were references to any of the adoptions that are part of the arrangement;

(d) the reference in subsection (4) to the date of the child's placement for adoption were a reference to the date of placement of the first child to be placed as part of the arrangement;

(e) the reference in subsection (5) to a particular adoption were a reference to the adoptions that are part of a particular arrangement.

(12) For the purposes of this section the working hours of an employee are to be taken to be any time when, in accordance with the employee's contract of employment, the employee is required to be at work.

(13) In this section “ adoption agency ” means an adoption agency within the meaning of section 2 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 or as defined in section 119(1)(a) of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007. ]

Textual Amendments

F1 Ss. 57ZJ-57ZS and cross-headings inserted (5.4.2015) by Children and Families Act 2014 (c. 6), ss. 128(1), 139(6); S.I. 2014/1640, art. 6(d)