The Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006

Made: 15th September 2006

Coming into operation: 1st October 2006

This Statutory Rule contains only regulations made by virtue of, or consequential upon, the Work and Families (Northern Ireland) Order 2006 and is made before the end of the period of 6 months beginning with the coming into operation of that provision[^f00007].

Citation, commencement and interpretation

1

These Regulations may be cited as the Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2006 and shall come into operation on 1st October 2006.

2

In these Regulations—

• “the General Regulations” means the Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2002[^f00008];

• “the Weekly Rates Regulations” means the Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay (Weekly Rates) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2002[^f00009].

Application

3

The amendments to the General Regulations and the Weekly Rates Regulations provided for by regulations 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9 apply in relation to an entitlement to—

• (1) statutory paternity pay (birth) in respect of children whose expected week of birth begins on or after 1st April 2007;

• (2) statutory paternity pay (adoption) and statutory adoption pay in respect of children expected to be placed for adoption, where the placement is expected to occur on or after 1st April 2007.

Amendments to the General Regulations

4

The General Regulations shall be amended as follows.

5

In regulation 21 (adoption pay period), in paragraph (5), for “26” substitute “39”.

6

After regulation 27 (cases where there is no liability to pay statutory adoption pay) insert—

(27A) In the case where an employee does any work under a contract of service with his employer on any day for not more than 10 such days during his adoption pay period, whether consecutive or not, statutory adoption pay shall continue to be payable to the employee by the employer.

7

In regulation 40 (normal weekly earnings), in paragraph (4), for “paragraph (2)” substitute “paragraph (3)”.

Amendment to the Weekly Rates Regulations

8

The Weekly Rates Regulations shall be amended as follows.

9

For regulation 4 (rounding of fractional amounts) substitute—

(4) Where any payment of— (1) statutory paternity pay is made on the basis of a calculation at— (a) the weekly rate specified in regulation 2(b); or (b) the daily rate of one seventh of the weekly rate specified in regulation 2(a) or (b); or (2) statutory adoption pay is made on the basis of a calculation at— (a) the weekly rate specified in regulation 3(b); or (b) the daily rate of one seventh of the weekly rate specified in regulation 3(a) or (b), and that amount includes a fraction of a penny, the payment shall be rounded up to the next whole number of pence.

Signed

Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department for Employment and Learning on 15th September 2006.

D. S. S. McAuley — A senior officer of the — Department for Employment and Learning

Explanatory note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

EXPLANATORY NOTE

This Statutory Rule contains only regulations made by virtue of, or consequential upon, the coming into operation of the Work and Families (Northern Ireland) Order 2006. The Statutory Rule is made before the end of the period of 6 months beginning with the coming into operation of those provisions. The regulations are therefore exempted by section 150(5)(b) of the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 from the requirement under section 149 of that Act to refer proposals to make the regulations to the Social Security Advisory Committee; consequently they are made without reference to the Committee.

These Regulations amend the Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay (General) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2002 (S.R. 2002 No. 378) (“the General Regulations”) and the Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay (Weekly Rates) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2002 (S.R. 2002 No. 380) (“the Weekly Rates Regulations”).

Regulation 5 amends Regulation 21 of the General Regulations and establishes that the adoption pay period is a continuous period of 39 weeks.

Regulation 6 inserts a new Regulation 27A into the General Regulations, providing that statutory adoption pay shall continue to be paid where an employee works for his employer for not more than 10 days within the adoption pay period.

Regulation 7 contains a technical amendment to Regulation 40 of the General Regulations.

Regulation 9 substitutes a new Regulation 4 into the Weekly Rates Regulations, and allows for payments of statutory paternity pay and statutory adoption pay for a week or part of a week to be rounded up to the next penny.

Footnotes

[^f00002]: Section 167ZN(2) was amended by Article 4 of the 2006 Order

[^f00003]: Section 167ZN(3) was amended by paragraph 20(2) of Schedule 1 to the 2006 Order

[^f00004]: Section 167ZN(6A) was inserted by paragraph 20(3) of Schedule 1 to the 2006 Order

[^f00006]: 1992 (c. 8). Section 5 was amended by paragraph 2(1) of Schedule 2 to the 2002 Order and paragraph 23 of Schedule 1 to the 2006 Order

[^f00007]: See Section 150(5) of the Social Security Administration (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 (c. 8)

[^f00008]: S.R. 2002 No. 378; relevant amending regulations are the Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004 (S.R. 2004 No. 132) and the Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay (General) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005 (S.R. 2005 No. 167).

[^f00009]: S.R. 2002 No. 380 was amended by the Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay (Weekly Rates) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2004 (S.R. 2004 No. 111), the Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order (Northern Ireland) 2005 (S.R. 2005 No. 82) and the Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order (Northern Ireland) 2006 (S.R. 2006 No. 109)