Adoption leave: total weeks

The whole of statutory adoption leave, being the two 26-week periods added together, of which 39 weeks carry pay.

52weeks

Derivation verified Derived Great Britain in force since 2003-04-06

Checked against its sources: statute verified 2026-09-21

Scope: 52 weeks of LEAVE, and only 39 of them carry Statutory Adoption Pay (Statutory Adoption Pay: weeks payable), so the last 13 are unpaid unless the contract says otherwise. Regulations 22 and 24 can end the leave early — a disrupted placement, or a dismissal — so 52 is a maximum reached by an uninterrupted placement. Only one member of a couple may take it. The limbs are Ordinary adoption leave (weeks) and Additional adoption leave (weeks); this record is only their sum (D14), and the build refuses a build in which the three disagree. The maternity equivalent is Maternity leave: total weeks, built the same way from the same two-limb shape.

How it is worked out: Ordinary adoption leave (weeks) + Additional adoption leave (weeks) — recomputed from its corroborated inputs on every build.

Current sources

Source A · Legislationhttps://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2788/made (Paternity and Adoption Leave Regulations 2002 reg 18(1): "an employee's ordinary adoption leave period is a period of 26 weeks" — the first limb of this derivation)

retrieved 2026-09-11

Source A · Legislationhttps://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2788/made (the same Regulations, reg 20(2): "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" — the second limb; the Regulations state no total)

retrieved 2026-09-11

History

Value	From	To	Status	Sources
52	2003-04-06	—	Derivation verified	Legislation: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2788/made (Paternity and Adoption Leave Regulations 2002 reg 18(1): "an employee's ordinary adoption leave period is a period of 26 weeks" — the first limb of this derivation) retrieved 2026-09-11 Legislation: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2788/made (the same Regulations, reg 20(2): "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" — the second limb; the Regulations state no total) retrieved 2026-09-11

Receipt

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

Figure ID: employment.leave.adoption_weeks
Name in the API: Statutory adoption leave: total weeks
Record fields (source type · unit · jurisdiction · status): derived·weeks·GB·derivation_verified
Derivation: employment.leave.adoption.ordinary_weeks@numeric + employment.leave.adoption.additional_weeks@numeric
Record hash (canonical JSON, SHA-256): sha256:f966e5f4619aebe102369d5f8f9a56f882759fc377dd887b1db9de4089e98431
Source snapshots (SHA-256): Legislation: sha256:3d0b4e313de959cd8b7bf474bbc92f0963eae64c83fbcbfdc7174a50c4a5cfd3; Legislation: sha256:3d0b4e313de959cd8b7bf474bbc92f0963eae64c83fbcbfdc7174a50c4a5cfd3
Listed in the signed manifest: release 3.0.0 manifest · record_hashes["employment.leave.adoption_weeks"]
Machine-readable record: /v1/figures/employment.leave.adoption_weeks · current only: /v1/figures/employment.leave.adoption_weeks/current

Compiler's notes

Not a figure any regulation states, which is the whole reason it is a derivation: GOV.UK's adoption guide prints "Statutory Adoption Leave is 52 weeks" and is right, but right as arithmetic over two stated limbs. Both limbs are cited as legislation from the same as-made document, which is why the second receipt's citation names its regulation explicitly — the bytes behind the two are one file.