2.—(1) Regulation 2 of the Statutory Maternity Pay (General) Regulations (the Maternity Pay Period) shall be amended in accordance with the following provisions of this regulation.
(2) For paragraph (1) there shall be substituted the following paragraph—
“(1) Subject to paragraphs (3) to (6), where a woman gives notice to her employer of the date from which she expects his liability to pay her statutory maternity pay to begin and in conformity with that notice ceases to work for him in a week which is later than the 12th week before the expected week of confinement, then the first week in the maternity pay period shall be the week following the week in which she ceased to work, or the week immediately following the week in which she is confined, whichever is the earlier.”.
(3) In paragraph (2) for the words “18 consecutive weeks” there shall be substituted the words “26 consecutive weeks”.
(4) In paragraph (3) for the words “shall be the week after the week in which she is confined” there shall be substituted the words “shall be the week commencing on the day after the day on which she is confined”.
(5) For paragraph (4) there shall be substituted the following paragraph—
“(4) Subject to paragraph (6) where a woman is absent from work wholly or partly because of pregnancy or confinement on any day which falls on or after the beginning of the 4th week before the expected week of confinement, but not later than the week immediately following the week in which she is confined, the first week of the maternity pay period shall be the week beginning on the day following the day on which she is so absent.”.
(6) Paragraph (5) shall be omitted.
(7) For paragraph (6) there shall be substituted the following paragraph—
“(6) In a case where a woman leaves her employment at any time falling after the beginning of the 11th week before the expected week of confinement and before the start of the maternity pay period but not later than the week immediately following the week in which she is confined, the first week of the maternity pay period shall be the week after the week in which her employment ends.”.
(8) After paragraph (6) there shall be added the following paragraph—
“(7) “week” for the purposes of a maternity pay period which falls within paragraphs (3) or (4) above means a period of 7 consecutive days.”.