An employee’s partner has fallen pregnant, is the partner entitled to shared parental leave?

The Work and Families (Northern Ireland) Act 2015 provides for shared parental leave (SPL) in Northern Ireland. An employee who is an expectant father or partner may voluntarily share the leave entitlement between himself or herself, and the mother of the child. Under the Shared Parental Leave Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2015 (the “Regulations”) a partner is defined as person, of the same or different sex, who lives with the mother or expectant mother in an enduring family relationship but is not related to the mother or expectant mother i.e. child, parent, grandparent, sibling, aunt, uncle etc.

SPL may only be considered if, in the first instance, the mother is entitled to