Employment, contingent workforce and immigration | UK Regulatory Outlook February 2025

New statutory right to neonatal leave and pay from April  

The government announced on 20 January that the new statutory right to neonatal leave and pay will come into force from 6 April for eligible employees. Draft regulations have now been published setting out further detail on how the new right will work and bringing the statutory provisions into force. 

The right to benefit from statutory neonatal leave will be a day one right (employees do not need a qualifying period of service). 

It will apply to children born on or after 6 April 2025 where neonatal care starts within 28 days of birth and where the child goes on to spend seven or more continuous days in neonatal care. 

Qualifying employees will be entitled to one week's leave for every week their child spends in neonatal care, capped at 12 weeks. Neonatal care is defined in the regulations and includes medical care received in a hospital and also care a child receives on leaving hospital where their care remains under the direction of a consultant and ongoing monitoring. It also covers the provision of palliative or end of life care.   

An employee must take any statutory neonatal leave before the end of 68 weeks beginning with the date of the child's birth. Regulations provide that it can be taken as non-consecutive or consecutive weeks depending on when the leave is taken (for example, whether it is taken while the child is still receiving neonatal care or where it is taken once the child is out of such care and added onto the end of a period of statutory maternity leave). The regulations make specific provision for where more than one child is born as result of the same pregnancy and both require neonatal care. 

In line with the existing statutory family leave rights, during a period of statutory neonatal leave an employee will continue to benefit from their terms and conditions of employment, except for remuneration. They will also have a right to return to the same job or to another job which is both suitable and appropriate depending on when they exercise their right to return. 

The regulations also provide for protection against detriment or dismissal for exercising the statutory leave entitlement, as well as providing for enhanced protection on redundancy in respect of offers of suitable alternative employment.   

Employees taking statutory neonatal leave may also benefit from statutory neonatal care pay where they meet the required continuity of service requirements and minimum earnings threshold. Again, this will operate in the same way as the existing statutory pay entitlements on family leave.

Employers will now need to ensure that they have policies in place reflecting this new statutory entitlement. The statutory regulations expressly provide for an employer to operate separate notice requirements and to offer enhancements to the statutory position. Read more here.

First reports to have been submitted to HMRC under the Platform Operators (Due Diligence and Reporting Requirements) Regulations 2003    

The UK Platform Operators (Due Diligence and Reporting Requirements) Regulations 2023, which came into force on 1 January 2024, implement the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Model Rules 1 into UK law. 

The first reports under the 2023 regulations were due to HMRC by 31 January 2025, in relation to the period from 1 January 2024 to 31 December 2024. The regulations apply to platform operators that facilitate the provision of relevant services: the rental of immovable property, the rental of a means of transport or the provision of "personal service" by connecting sellers with users.  It does not include services offered or provided by agency workers. Platforms that engage and pay workers through their PAYE payroll are not subject to these regulations. 

For those businesses that are yet to report, they must do so as soon as possible as failure to report leads to an initial penalty of up to £5,000 and a continuing penalty of up to £600 per day for not reporting by the 31 January yearly reporting deadline. For further details on this, please contact Belinda Brooke or Kevin Barrow and also see our summary.