THE BOTTOM LINE
- Immediate Eligibility: From 6th April 2026, new employees will be entitled to parental and paternity leave from their first day of employment. The previous continuous service requirements are being abolished.
- Policy Overhaul Required: Businesses must urgently review and update their HR policies, employee handbooks, and internal guidance to reflect that these family-friendly leaves are now day-one rights.
- Increased Workforce Flexibility: Employees will have more flexibility in sequencing their leave, as the restriction on taking paternity leave after a period of shared parental leave has been removed, impacting workforce planning and cover arrangements.
THE DETAILS
New regulations have been laid before Parliament that fundamentally alter the landscape for working parents in the UK. The core change, effective from 6th April 2026, is the complete removal of the minimum service period required for an employee to qualify for both parental and paternity leave. Previously, an employee needed a period of continuous employment (for example, 26 weeks for paternity leave) to be eligible. This is no longer the case. The change establishes these leaves as day-one rights, meaning a new hire is entitled to take them from the moment their employment begins, provided they meet the other existing criteria. This shift will require businesses to rethink their immediate onboarding and short-term staffing plans for new recruits.
These changes are not standalone but are the direct consequence of the Employment Rights Act 2025. This new Statutory Instrument—the “Consequential Amendments Regulations“—is the final administrative step to align older, detailed regulations with the primary legislation passed last year. The regulations achieve this by formally striking out the specific clauses in the Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations 1999 and the Paternity and Adoption Leave Regulations 2002 that mandated a qualifying period of employment. For legal teams and business leaders, this signals a clear governmental direction towards enhancing employee rights and creating a more inclusive and flexible modern workplace.
Beyond the removal of qualifying periods, the regulations also implement a key change to improve flexibility for families. Previously, an employee who had taken a period of shared parental leave was often barred from subsequently taking paternity leave. Section 17 of the 2025 Act, which these regulations now bring into force, removes this restriction. This allows parents to sequence their leave in a way that better suits their family’s needs, potentially taking a block of shared parental leave and then later taking their paternity leave. This enhances the options available to employees and requires line managers to be aware of the more complex leave combinations they may now need to accommodate.
SOURCE
Source: The Employment Rights Act 2025 (Parental and Paternity Leave) (Removal of Qualifying Periods etc.) (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2026, published by the King’s Printer of Acts of Parliament.
