The Statutory Paternity Pay and Statutory Adoption Pay (Administration) Regulations 2002

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations provide for the funding of employers' liabilities to make payments of statutory paternity or statutory adoption pay; they also impose obligations on employers in connection with such payments and confer powers on the Commissioners of Inland Revenue (“the Board”).

Under regulation 3, an employer is entitled to an amount equal to 92 per cent. of payments made by him of statutory paternity pay (“s.p.p.”) or statutory adoption pay (“s.a.p.”), or the whole of such payments if he is a small employer. Regulations 4–7 provide for employers to be reimbursed through deductions from income tax, national insurance and other payments that they would otherwise make to the Board, and for the Board to fund payments to the extent that employers cannot be fully reimbursed in this way. Regulation 8 enables the Board to recover overpayments to employers.

Regulation 9 requires employers to maintain records relevant to the payment of s.p.p. or s.a.p. to employees or former employees, and regulation 10 empowers officers of the Board to inspect, copy or remove employers' payment records.

Regulation 11 requires an employer who decides not to make payments of s.p.p. or s.a.p., or not to make further payments of s.a.p., to an employee or former employee to give that person details of the decision and the reasons for it. Regulations 12 and 13 provide for officers of the Board to determine issues relating to a person’s entitlement to s.p.p. or s.a.p. Regulation 14 provides for employers, employment agencies, persons claiming s.p.p. or s.a.p. and others to furnish information or documents to an officer of the Board on request.