Maternity leave: total weeks

The whole of statutory maternity 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 2026-09-11

Scope: 52 weeks of LEAVE, and only 39 of them carry Statutory Maternity Pay (Statutory Maternity Pay: weeks payable), so the last 13 are unpaid unless the contract says otherwise. The first two weeks after childbirth are compulsory (Compulsory maternity leave (weeks)); regulation 7(5) ends the leave early on dismissal and regulation 7(2) can extend the ordinary period, so 52 is the ordinary whole rather than an invariable one. The limbs are Ordinary maternity leave (weeks) and Additional maternity leave (weeks); this record is only their sum (D14), and the build refuses a build in which the three disagree. Shared parental leave is taken OUT of this 52, not added to it — see Shared parental leave: maximum weeks.

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

Current sources

Source A · Legislationhttps://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2789/made (Maternity and Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2002 reg 8(a), substituting "26 weeks" for "eighteen weeks" in regulation 7(1) of the Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations 1999 — the ordinary maternity leave period, the first limb of this derivation)

retrieved 2026-09-11

Source A · Legislationhttps://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2789/made (the same Regulations, reg 8(b), substituting "26 weeks from the day on which it commenced" in regulation 7(4) — the additional maternity leave period, the second limb; neither instrument states a total)

retrieved 2026-09-11

History

Value	From	To	Status	Sources
52	2003-04-06	—	Derivation verified	Legislation: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2789/made (Maternity and Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2002 reg 8(a), substituting "26 weeks" for "eighteen weeks" in regulation 7(1) of the Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations 1999 — the ordinary maternity leave period, the first limb of this derivation) retrieved 2026-09-11 Legislation: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2789/made (the same Regulations, reg 8(b), substituting "26 weeks from the day on which it commenced" in regulation 7(4) — the additional maternity leave period, the second limb; neither instrument states a 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.maternity_weeks
Name in the API: Statutory maternity leave: total weeks
Record fields (source type · unit · jurisdiction · status): derived·weeks·GB·derivation_verified
Derivation: employment.leave.maternity.ordinary_weeks@numeric + employment.leave.maternity.additional_weeks@numeric
Record hash (canonical JSON, SHA-256): sha256:612cc1591c0b75490f7b01465c2b20487fb0afe08178a330dd3b9e5bdc1d456c
Source snapshots (SHA-256): Legislation: sha256:211d87df6ee78afdb038435f33962f786cd8b9c57a067b5584ad6183f2e46c63; Legislation: sha256:211d87df6ee78afdb038435f33962f786cd8b9c57a067b5584ad6183f2e46c63
Listed in the signed manifest: release 3.0.0 manifest · record_hashes["employment.leave.maternity_weeks"]
Machine-readable record: /v1/figures/employment.leave.maternity_weeks · current only: /v1/figures/employment.leave.maternity_weeks/current

Compiler's notes

Not a figure any regulation states, which is the whole reason it is a derivation: GOV.UK's maternity guide prints "Statutory Maternity 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 — SI 2002/2789 reg 8 set both figures, (a) and (b), in one regulation — which is why the second receipt's citation names its sub-paragraph explicitly: the bytes behind the two are one file. Refused on 2026-09-11 for want of a first limb; authored once the ordinary period derived (D18 follow-up, 2026-09-14).