New section 79: Supplemental
177.This new section makes supplementary provision as to the scope of the Secretary of State’s regulation-making powers. Further consultation will inform how these additional provisions will be used, but some possibilities are set out below. They enable the Secretary of State:
(subsections (1)(a), (b) and (c)): to set out procedures to be followed, notices and evidence required, and records to be kept by employers and employees in relation to a period of parental leave. For example, the regulations could specify that employees must:
give notice of a specified length,
give written notice, and
provide evidence of entitlement,
and that employers must:
respond within a specified time, and
give reasons for postponement or refusal;
(subsections (1)(d) and (e)): to specify the consequences of failure to comply with these provisions;
(subsection (1)(f)): as for maternity leave, to enable employees to choose to exercise contractual rights, where these are better;
(subsection (1)(g)): to make consequential amendments; and
(subsection (1)(h)): to make different provision for different cases or circumstances (additional flexibility, as under the maternity leave provisions - see new section 75(1)(g)). This would enable different provision to be made, for example, in relation to adopted children.
178.New subsection (2) is a technical measure enabling (as for maternity leave under new section 75(1)(e)) provisions in the 1996 Act concerned with the calculation of a week’s pay to be modified to ensure, for example, that employees’ entitlement to redundancy pay is not reduced because they were on parental leave on the calculation date for that payment.
179.New subsection (3) provides additional powers to ensure the regulations can make any other provision which may be necessary or expedient to implement the EC Parental Leave Directive or to deal with the UK’s obligations under the Directive. This power ensures that a single set of regulations can be made covering all provisions on parental leave.
