8. After section 167ZE of the Contributions and Benefits Act insert—
167ZEA.—(1) The Department may by regulations provide that, where all the conditions in subsection (2) are satisfied in relation to a person (“the claimant”), the claimant shall be entitled in accordance with the following provisions of this Part to payments to be known as “additional statutory paternity pay”.
(2) Those conditions are—
(a)that the claimant satisfies prescribed conditions—
(i)as to relationship with a child, and
(ii)as to relationship with the child’s mother;
(b)that the claimant has been in employed earner’s employment with an employer for a continuous period of at least the prescribed length ending with a prescribed week;
(c)that the claimant’s normal weekly earnings for a prescribed period ending with a prescribed week are not less than the lower earnings limit in force under section 5(1)(a) at the end of that week;
(d)if regulations so provide, that the claimant continues in employed earner’s employment (whether or not with that employer) until a prescribed time;
(e)that the mother of the child by reference to whom the condition in paragraph (a) is satisfied became entitled, by reference to the birth of the child—
(i)to a maternity allowance, or
(ii)to statutory maternity pay;
(f)that the mother has, in relation to employment as an employed or self-employed earner, taken action that is treated by regulations as constituting for the purposes of this section her return to work;
(g)that the day on which the mother is treated as returning to work falls—
(i)after the end of a prescribed period beginning with the birth of the child, but
(ii)at a time when at least a prescribed part of her maternity allowance period or maternity pay period remains unexpired;
(h)that it is the claimant’s intention to care for the child during a period beginning not later than a prescribed time.
(3) The regulations may—
(a)exclude the application of the conditions mentioned in paragraphs (f) and (g) of subsection (2) in cases where the child’s mother has died, and
(b)provide that the condition mentioned in paragraph (e) of that subsection shall have effect with prescribed modifications in such cases.
(4) A person’s entitlement to additional statutory paternity pay under this section shall not be affected by the birth of more than one child as a result of the same pregnancy.”.