{
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    "compiled_at": "2026-09-21T00:00:00Z",
    "generated_at": "2026-09-28T09:07:46Z",
    "attribution": [
      "© Crown and database right. Derived from content available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 from legislation.gov.uk.",
      "Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0."
    ],
    "docs": "https://statbook.co.uk/docs/",
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  "figure": {
    "id": "employment.leave.maternity_weeks",
    "name": "Statutory maternity leave: total weeks",
    "category": "employment",
    "jurisdiction": "GB",
    "unit": "weeks",
    "value_type": "count",
    "currency": null,
    "source_type": "derived",
    "values": [
      {
        "value": 52,
        "value_minor": null,
        "effective_from": "2003-04-06",
        "effective_to": null,
        "announcement_date": null,
        "enacted_date": null,
        "instrument_made": true,
        "terminal_kind": null,
        "status": "derivation_verified",
        "sources": [
          {
            "role": "legislation",
            "citation": "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)",
            "uri": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2789/made",
            "retrieved": "2026-09-11T00:15:55Z",
            "content_hash": "sha256:211d87df6ee78afdb038435f33962f786cd8b9c57a067b5584ad6183f2e46c63",
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          {
            "role": "legislation",
            "citation": "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)",
            "uri": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2789/made#reg8b",
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    ],
    "derivation": "employment.leave.maternity.ordinary_weeks@numeric + employment.leave.maternity.additional_weeks@numeric",
    "invariants": [],
    "lineage": [],
    "definitions": [
      {
        "from": null,
        "to": null,
        "text": "The whole of statutory maternity leave: the 26 weeks of ordinary maternity leave under regulation 7(1) of the Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations 1999 plus the 26 weeks of additional maternity leave under regulation 7(4), which begins the day after the first ends (reg 6(3)). No provision states 52; it is published as a derivation from the two that do, and recomputed by the build.",
        "instrument": "Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations 1999 regs 7(1), 7(4)"
      }
    ],
    "applicability": {
      "basis": "event_date",
      "note": "Attaches to childbirth: the ordinary period commences on the date notified under regulations 4 and 6, or earlier on a pregnancy-related absence or the birth, and the additional period runs on from the day after it ends (reg 6(3)) without a gap. Dated 6 April 2003, the date SI 2002/2789 reg 2(1) gives the maternity amendments effect from — the same date both limbs carry.",
      "article": "Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations 1999 regs 4, 6(1)-(3), 7(1), 7(2), 7(4), 7(5), 8; SI 2002/2789 regs 2(1), 8"
    },
    "scope_note": "52 weeks of LEAVE, and only 39 of them carry Statutory Maternity Pay (`employment.smp.paid_leave_weeks`), so the last 13 are unpaid unless the contract says otherwise. The first two weeks after childbirth are compulsory (`employment.leave.compulsory_maternity_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 `employment.leave.maternity.ordinary_weeks` and `employment.leave.maternity.additional_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 `employment.leave.spl.max_weeks`.",
    "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).",
    "record_version": 3
  },
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    "manifest": "https://statbook.co.uk/v1/releases/3.0.0/manifest.json",
    "record_url": "https://statbook.co.uk/v1/figures/employment.leave.maternity_weeks.json",
    "sources": [
      {
        "role": "legislation",
        "citation": "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)",
        "uri": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2789/made",
        "retrieved": "2026-09-11T00:15:55Z",
        "content_hash": "sha256:211d87df6ee78afdb038435f33962f786cd8b9c57a067b5584ad6183f2e46c63",
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      },
      {
        "role": "legislation",
        "citation": "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)",
        "uri": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2002/2789/made#reg8b",
        "retrieved": "2026-09-11T00:15:55Z",
        "content_hash": "sha256:211d87df6ee78afdb038435f33962f786cd8b9c57a067b5584ad6183f2e46c63",
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    ],
    "verified": {
      "legislation": "2026-09-11T00:15:55Z"
    },
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  }
}