An employee who has been notified by an adoption agency that a child is to be, or is expected to be, placed for adoption with the employee alone is entitled to be permitted by his or her employer to take time off during the employee's working hours in order that he or she may attend by appointment at any place for the purpose of having contact with the child or for any other purpose connected with the adoption.
An employee who—
is entitled to be permitted by his or her employer to take time off during the employee's working hours in order that he or she may attend by appointment at any place for the purpose of having contact with the child or for any other purpose connected with the adoption.
An employee may not make an election for the purposes of subsection (2)(b) if—
An employee is not entitled to take time off under this section on or after the date of the child's placement for adoption with the employee.
In relation to any particular adoption, an employee is not entitled to take time off under this section on more than five occasions.
On each of those occasions, the maximum time off during working hours to which the employee is entitled is six and a half hours.
An employee is not entitled to take time off under this section unless the appointment has been arranged by or at the request of the adoption agency which made the notification described in subsection (1) or (2)(a).
An employee is not entitled to take time off under subsection (1) unless, if the employer requests it, the employee gives the employer a document showing the date and time of the appointment in question and that it has been arranged as described in subsection (7).
An employee is not entitled to take time off under subsection (2) unless, if the employer requests it, the employee gives the employer—
A document or declaration requested under subsection (8) or (9) may be given in electronic form.
In cases where more than one child is to be, or is expected to be, placed for adoption with an employee as part of the same arrangement, this section has effect as if—
For the purposes of this section the working hours of an employee are to be taken to be any time when, in accordance with the employee's contract of employment, the employee is required to be at work.
In this section " adoption agency " means an adoption agency within the meaning of section 2 of the Adoption and Children Act 2002 or as defined in section 119(1)(a) of the Adoption and Children (Scotland) Act 2007.