Additional maternity leave (weeks)

The second half of statutory maternity leave, beginning the day the first half ends.

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: READ THIS BEFORE USING THE FIGURE: 26 weeks is the SECOND half of statutory maternity leave, not the whole of it. The first half is Ordinary maternity leave (weeks) (regulation 7(1), also 26 weeks) and the 52-week total is the derived Maternity leave: total weeks. Maternity PAY runs 39 weeks (Statutory Maternity Pay: weeks payable), so roughly the last 13 weeks of this period are unpaid; the two compulsory weeks after childbirth are Compulsory maternity leave (weeks).

Current sources

Source A · Legislationhttps://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2789/made (SI 2002/2789 reg 8(b): "In regulation 7 (duration of maternity leave periods)- ... (b) in paragraph (4), for \"29 weeks beginning with the week of childbirth\" substitute \"26 weeks from the day on which it commenced\""; in force 24 November 2002, reg 1(1), having effect only in relation to employees whose expected week of childbirth begins on or after 6 April 2003, reg 2(1))

retrieved 2026-09-11

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

retrieved 2026-07-29

History

Value	From	To	Status	Sources
26	2003-04-06	—	Corroborated	Legislation: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2789/made (SI 2002/2789 reg 8(b): "In regulation 7 (duration of maternity leave periods)- ... (b) in paragraph (4), for \"29 weeks beginning with the week of childbirth\" substitute \"26 weeks from the day on which it commenced\""; in force 24 November 2002, reg 1(1), having effect only in relation to employees whose expected week of childbirth begins on or after 6 April 2003, reg 2(1)) retrieved 2026-09-11 Official guidance: https://www.gov.uk/maternity-pay-leave (under "Leave": "Statutory Maternity Leave is 52 weeks. It's made up of: Ordinary Maternity Leave - first 26 weeks Additional Maternity Leave - last 26 weeks") 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.maternity.additional_weeks
Name in the API: Additional maternity leave: weeks
Record fields (source type · unit · jurisdiction · status): si·weeks·GB·corroborated
Record hash (canonical JSON, SHA-256): sha256:3b60d3819f891046173eb167dad0601793269849f2510a43a60ab85af99272c8
Source snapshots (SHA-256): Legislation: sha256:211d87df6ee78afdb038435f33962f786cd8b9c57a067b5584ad6183f2e46c63; Official guidance: sha256:728dd9d923c0cc64dd79373a78cec6e2886c91437c3e1325de31dc123cbf49fd
Listed in the signed manifest: release 3.0.0 manifest · record_hashes["employment.leave.maternity.additional_weeks"]
Machine-readable record: /v1/figures/employment.leave.maternity.additional_weeks · current only: /v1/figures/employment.leave.maternity.additional_weeks/current

Compiler's notes

An SI carry (ADR-0014): SI 2002/2789 reg 8(b) substituted the WORDS "29 weeks beginning with the week of childbirth" with "26 weeks from the day on which it commenced", and it is that substituted phrase which is the locator — verbatim in the setter's as-made text and, as it happens, unique in the host. That coincidence is exactly what its sibling lacks: reg 8(a) substituted only "26 weeks" into paragraph (1), three provisions of the host share those words, and a locator long enough to be unique there is longer than anything the setter wrote. si_probe uses ONE token set for the host's uniqueness test and the setter's presence test, so this row's sibling cannot be carried at all — it is authored instead as an NF-1 derivation from the same instrument's own substituted words (2026-09-14), which needs no host locator. Whether the probe should take a separate setter-side token set remains a design question, recorded rather than worked around.