A copy of the main (1999) regulations incorporating amendments as at October 2006 is included in this program at ACTS OF PARLIAMENT etc/Maternity and Parental Leave etc Regulations 1999/text .

"Ordinary maternity leave" is the 26 weeks maternity leave to which all employed new mothers are entitled under Employment Rights Act 1996 s.71 if their expected week of childbirth begins on or after 6th April 2003. Until 6th April 2003 an ordinary maternity leave period was 18 weeks (see Maternity/maternity leave/an outline of the right ). A woman is normally entitled to statutory maternity pay (''SMP'') or maternity allowance during her ordinary maternity leave. Ordinary leave includes the compulsory maternity leave which employers are also obliged to provide.

"Additional maternity leave" is a period of further (generally unpaid) maternity leave of up to 26 weeks starting from the end of ordinary maternity leave. Additional maternity leave is unpaid, subject to any specific contractual rights.

The requirement for a mother to have been in continuous employment with the same employer for (roughly) nine months before her expected week of childbirth was progressively removed during 2006 and early 2007 (see notes at Maternity/maternity leave/2006 changes ). One result is that a woman who knows she is pregnant when she applies for a new job can now qualify for a full 12 months maternity leave.

As well as ordinary and additional maternity leave, the law also provides for compulsory maternity leave of 2 weeks (4 weeks for factory workers) for all employed mothers, as required by the EC Pregnant Workers Directive (92/85/EC) art 8(2)). An employer who allows a woman to work during a compulsory maternity leave period commits a criminal offence. Compulsory maternity leave is normally subsumed into ordinary maternity leave so for practical purposes can normally be disregarded.

There are provisions requiring employees to give formal notices to employers and requiring employers to give formal notices to employees, all within specified time limits, in order to ensure proper operation of statutory maternity leave rights and of rights to return to work at the end of maternity leave (see notes at Maternity/maternity leave/an outline of the right ).

It should be noted that a woman is entitled to her statutory minimum annual holiday in addition to any maternity leave to which she may be entitled (see Merino Gómez v Continental Industrias del Caucho SA ECJ 2004 Case C-342/01 on 18th March 2004, reported at [2004] IRLR 407 and notes at Working Time Regulations/holidays ).

See also notes at Maternity/maternity leave/an outline of the right and/or generally at Maternity/maternity leave and Work-Life balance/a general note .