{
  "meta": {
    "schema": "statbook-api/1",
    "release_version": "3.0.0",
    "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/",
    "signing": {
      "scheme": "minisign",
      "public_key": "RWSPzbJEmAXVEvTqYZ8O9iHuOcOUii5lCNZM5t9bdoQh4ZnwKsxk/+bd",
      "key_id": "12D5059844B2CD8F",
      "verify": "https://statbook.co.uk/assurance/#verify"
    }
  },
  "figure": {
    "id": "employment.spp.continuous_employment_weeks",
    "name": "Statutory Paternity Pay: continuous employment qualifier",
    "category": "employment",
    "jurisdiction": "GB",
    "unit": "weeks",
    "value_type": "count",
    "currency": null,
    "cadence": null,
    "source_type": "act",
    "act_probe": {
      "verdict": "ACT-HOLDS",
      "provision": "section-171ZA-2-b",
      "probed": "2026-07-29",
      "source_url": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1992/4/section/171ZA/data.xml",
      "content_hash": "sha256:0c84bcf837701976f3bc978ec4c32417e24b74c923b7b770887af6addbd0121c",
      "tokens": [
        "he has been in employed earner's employment with an employer for a continuous period of at least 26 weeks ending with the relevant week"
      ],
      "commentaries_c": [
        "M_C_57febaab-22a9-41c2-a845-d3c4a418c329",
        "M_C_ee6d78f9-0de1-4092-c998-dba7093897dd"
      ],
      "expires": null
    },
    "values": [
      {
        "value": 26,
        "value_minor": null,
        "effective_from": "2002-12-08",
        "effective_to": null,
        "announcement_date": null,
        "enacted_date": null,
        "instrument_made": true,
        "terminal_kind": null,
        "status": "corroborated",
        "sources": [
          {
            "role": "legislation",
            "citation": "Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992, c. 4 s. 171ZA (\"a continuous period of at least 26 weeks ending with the relevant week\")",
            "uri": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1992/4/section/171ZA",
            "retrieved": "2026-07-29T15:04:54Z",
            "content_hash": "sha256:3d8eb4eb7fac3ab3ba16fce0cd925934dd31ff382092ce35812a969a29c5539c"
          },
          {
            "role": "guidance",
            "citation": "https://www.gov.uk/paternity-pay-leave (\"have been continuously employed by your employer for at least 26 weeks\")",
            "uri": "https://www.gov.uk/paternity-pay-leave",
            "retrieved": "2026-07-29T14:08:28Z",
            "content_hash": "sha256:a22b093e1c2accb654198892dea38848dd7eb3cf02d82b0199baaa4898a8b015"
          }
        ],
        "verified": {
          "guidance": "2026-09-21T10:07:35Z",
          "legislation": "2026-09-21T10:07:35Z"
        },
        "last_verified": "2026-09-21T10:07:35Z"
      }
    ],
    "derivation": null,
    "invariants": [],
    "lineage": [],
    "definitions": [
      {
        "from": null,
        "to": null,
        "text": "The qualifying period of continuous employment with the same employer that a person must complete to be entitled to Statutory Paternity Pay. Stated by this payment's OWN provision: the figure happens to be 26 weeks for every statutory payment today, but each is set separately and can move separately.",
        "instrument": "Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 s.171ZA"
      }
    ],
    "applicability": {
      "basis": "pay_period_start",
      "note": "Measured back from the qualifying week defined by s.171ZA, not from the payment date or the tax year. Part 12ZA came into force on 8 December 2002; the payment itself first ran from a later April, a date the archived documents do not state.",
      "article": "Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992 s.171ZA(2)"
    },
    "scope_note": "s.171ZA also empowers regulations to treat a person as having completed the period in prescribed circumstances — broken service under successive contracts, for instance — so the count is the statutory floor rather than the whole test.",
    "notes": "Deliberately NOT one shared figure across the payments. The Act repeats the condition per payment and each provision carries its own regulation-making power, so a merged row would be one legal claim standing for five, and wrong for four of them the moment any one changed. No invariant couples them for the same reason. effective_from is the commencement of the Part that states the condition, read from the F-note on the archived section: \"Pt. 12ZA inserted (8.12.2002) by Employment Act 2002 (c. 22), ss. 2, 55(2); S.I. 2002/2866, art. 2(2), Sch. 1 Pt. 2\".",
    "record_version": 3
  },
  "receipt": {
    "record_hash": "sha256:54833b9452affbf4e2945a10d4edf46a80bded50c36e6c2bc64088e951612092",
    "record_hash_of": "the `figure` object, serialized as UTF-8 JSON with 2-space indent, ensure_ascii=false and a trailing newline",
    "release_version": "3.0.0",
    "manifest": "https://statbook.co.uk/v1/releases/3.0.0/manifest.json",
    "record_url": "https://statbook.co.uk/v1/figures/employment.spp.continuous_employment_weeks.json",
    "sources": [
      {
        "role": "legislation",
        "citation": "Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992, c. 4 s. 171ZA (\"a continuous period of at least 26 weeks ending with the relevant week\")",
        "uri": "https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1992/4/section/171ZA",
        "retrieved": "2026-07-29T15:04:54Z",
        "content_hash": "sha256:3d8eb4eb7fac3ab3ba16fce0cd925934dd31ff382092ce35812a969a29c5539c"
      },
      {
        "role": "guidance",
        "citation": "https://www.gov.uk/paternity-pay-leave (\"have been continuously employed by your employer for at least 26 weeks\")",
        "uri": "https://www.gov.uk/paternity-pay-leave",
        "retrieved": "2026-07-29T14:08:28Z",
        "content_hash": "sha256:a22b093e1c2accb654198892dea38848dd7eb3cf02d82b0199baaa4898a8b015"
      }
    ],
    "verified": {
      "guidance": "2026-09-21T10:07:35Z",
      "legislation": "2026-09-21T10:07:35Z"
    },
    "last_verified": "2026-09-21T10:07:35Z"
  }
}