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      "© Crown and database right. Derived from content available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 from legislation.gov.uk.",
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  "figure_id": "employment.leave.maternity.ordinary_weeks",
  "name": "Ordinary maternity leave: weeks",
  "unit": "weeks",
  "value_type": "count",
  "source_type": "si",
  "jurisdiction": "GB",
  "scope_note": "26 weeks, and it is the FIRST half of statutory maternity leave, not the whole of it: the second half is `employment.leave.maternity.additional_weeks`, also 26 weeks, and the 52-week total is the derived `employment.leave.maternity_weeks`. Maternity PAY runs 39 weeks (`employment.smp.paid_leave_weeks`), so pay outlasts this period and stops part-way through the additional one. The first two weeks after childbirth inside it are compulsory and cannot be waived (`employment.leave.compulsory_maternity_weeks`). Regulation 7(2) can make the period longer where a statutory prohibition on working outlasts it, and regulation 7(5) ends it early on dismissal, so 26 is the ordinary length rather than an invariable one.",
  "current": {
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    "value_minor": null,
    "effective_from": "2003-04-06",
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        "role": "legislation",
        "citation": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2789/made (SI 2002/2789 reg 8(a): \"In regulation 7 (duration of maternity leave periods)- (a) in paragraph (1), for “eighteen weeks” substitute “26 weeks”\"; 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))",
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      {
        "role": "guidance",
        "citation": "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\")",
        "uri": "https://www.gov.uk/maternity-pay-leave",
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  "value_numeric": 26,
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    "record_url": "https://statbook.co.uk/v1/figures/employment.leave.maternity.ordinary_weeks.json",
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      {
        "role": "legislation",
        "citation": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2789/made (SI 2002/2789 reg 8(a): \"In regulation 7 (duration of maternity leave periods)- (a) in paragraph (1), for “eighteen weeks” substitute “26 weeks”\"; 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))",
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      },
      {
        "role": "guidance",
        "citation": "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\")",
        "uri": "https://www.gov.uk/maternity-pay-leave",
        "retrieved": "2026-07-29T15:05:08Z",
        "content_hash": "sha256:728dd9d923c0cc64dd79373a78cec6e2886c91437c3e1325de31dc123cbf49fd"
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