The Act of 1995 is amended -

(a) in section 2(1), by the insertion of the following definition:

“ ‘parent’s leave’ has the same meaning as it has in the Parent’s Leave and Benefit Act 2019;”,

(b) by the insertion of the following section after section 6:

“6A. Restrictions on entitlement to adoptive leave

(1) Where a child is, or is to be, adopted by an employee who is the step parent of the child, the employee shall not be entitled to adoptive leave in respect of the child if his or her spouse, civil partner or cohabitant, as the case may be, has, prior to the adoption of the child, taken -

(a) adoptive leave in respect of that child, or

(b) maternity leave (within the meaning of the Maternity Protection Act 1994) in respect of that child.

(2) In this section -

‘Act of 2010’ means the Civil Partnership and Certain Rights and Obligations of Cohabitants Act 2010;

‘civil partner’ shall be construed in accordance with section 3 of the Act of 2010;

‘cohabitant’ shall be construed in accordance with section 172(1) of the Act of 2010;

‘step parent’ has the same meaning as it has in the Adoption Act 2010.”,

and

(c) in section 9(3) -