Family Leave and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2021

Amendment of section 61A of Act of 2005

12. Section 61A of the Act of 2005 is amended in subsection (1)—

(a) by the insertion of the following definition:

“ ‘qualifying adopter’—

(a) in the case of an employed contributor, has the meaning given to it by section 2(1) of the Act of 1995, or

(b) in the case of a person in insurable self-employment means—

(i) in the case of a child who is, or is to be, adopted jointly by a married couple, a couple who are civil partners of each other or a cohabiting couple, the member of the couple concerned, chosen by that couple to be the qualifying adopter for the purposes of this Act, and in whose care the child (of whom neither the qualifying adopter nor his or her spouse, civil partner or cohabitant, as the case may be, is the mother or father) has been placed or is to be placed with a view to the making of an adoption order, or to the effecting of a foreign adoption or following any such adoption, or

(ii) in any other case, a person who is not a surviving parent in whose care a child has been placed or is to be placed with a view to the making of an adoption order, or to the effecting of a foreign adoption or following any such adoption;”,

(b) in paragraph (b) of the definition of “relevant parent”, by the substitution of the following subparagraph for subparagraph (i):

“(i) in the case of a child who is, or is to be, adopted jointly by a married couple, a couple who are civil partners of each other or a cohabiting couple, the member of the couple concerned, chosen by that couple to be the relevant parent for the purposes of this Chapter, or”,

(c) in paragraph (a) of the definition of “surviving parent”, by the substitution of “the qualifying adopter” for “the relevant adopting parent”, and

(d) by the deletion of the definitions of “adopting mother”, “relevant adopting parent” and “sole male adopter”.