Work and Families Act 2006 : Elizabeth II. Chapter 18

This Act is in 20 parts with two schedules and contains provisions about the statutory rights to leave and pay in connection with the birth and adoption of children.

The Act's main purposes are: to extend the maximum period for which statutory maternity pay, maternity allowance and statutory adoption pay are payable from 26 weeks to 52 weeks; to introduce a new scheme to provide certain employees, specifically fathers, with a new entitlement to take leave to care for a child and receive pay while they are on leave; to widen the scope of the existing law on flexible working to enable people with caring responsibilities to request to work flexibly; to provide a new power to increase on one occasion the maximum amount of a week's pay which may be taken into account in the calculation of certain payments, for example redundancy; and to provide a new power to make provision about annual leave.