Additional adoption leave (weeks)

The second half of statutory adoption leave, running straight on from the first and largely unpaid.

26weeks

Corroborated Statutory Instrument Great Britain in force since 2003-04-06

Checked against its sources: statute verified 2026-09-21·guidance verified 2026-07-29

Scope: 26 weeks on top of the ordinary 26, and unpaid for most of its length: Statutory Adoption Pay runs 39 weeks from the start of the ordinary period, so the last 13 weeks of this one carry no statutory pay. The ordinary limb is Ordinary adoption leave (weeks) and the 52-week total is the derived companion Adoption leave: total weeks.

Current sources

Source A · Legislationhttps://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2788/made (SI 2002/2788 reg 20(2) as made: "Subject to regulations 22 and 24, an employee's additional adoption leave period is a period of 26 weeks beginning on the day after the last day of his ordinary adoption leave period"; in force 8 December 2002, reg 1, applying to children matched or placed on or after 6 April 2003, reg 3(2))

retrieved 2026-09-11

Source B · Official guidancehttps://www.gov.uk/adoption-pay-leave (under "Leave": "Statutory Adoption Leave is 52 weeks. It's made up of: 26 weeks of Ordinary Adoption Leave 26 weeks of Additional Adoption Leave")

retrieved 2026-07-29

History

Value	From	To	Status	Sources
26	2003-04-06	—	Corroborated	Legislation: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2788/made (SI 2002/2788 reg 20(2) as made: "Subject to regulations 22 and 24, an employee's additional adoption leave period is a period of 26 weeks beginning on the day after the last day of his ordinary adoption leave period"; in force 8 December 2002, reg 1, applying to children matched or placed on or after 6 April 2003, reg 3(2)) retrieved 2026-09-11 Official guidance: https://www.gov.uk/adoption-pay-leave (under "Leave": "Statutory Adoption Leave is 52 weeks. It's made up of: 26 weeks of Ordinary Adoption Leave 26 weeks of Additional Adoption Leave") retrieved 2026-07-29

Receipt

Everything above is reproducible and independently checkable — no trust in this site required (how verification works).

Figure ID: employment.leave.adoption.additional_weeks
Name in the API: Additional adoption leave: weeks
Record fields (source type · unit · jurisdiction · status): si·weeks·GB·corroborated
Record hash (canonical JSON, SHA-256): sha256:b471492dca31fe57c7260002cafb9f273c56a3ebfecd8c8aeaa8ce4cb5ed0719
Source snapshots (SHA-256): Legislation: sha256:3d0b4e313de959cd8b7bf474bbc92f0963eae64c83fbcbfdc7174a50c4a5cfd3; Official guidance: sha256:5400f6529dafaa67ce485437290490ada90097b68ab21b3cefc5b348ba3783e2
Listed in the signed manifest: release 3.0.0 manifest · record_hashes["employment.leave.adoption.additional_weeks"]
Machine-readable record: /v1/figures/employment.leave.adoption.additional_weeks · current only: /v1/figures/employment.leave.adoption.additional_weeks/current

Compiler's notes

An SI carry (ADR-0014), and a HOST-STATES one: no textual amendment touches regulation 20(2). The locator runs on past the number to "beginning on the day after", because regulation 18(1)'s phrase is otherwise a prefix of this one and the two limbs would be one ambiguous location.