Eligible employees and workers will be entitled to 10 days’ paid safe leave each leave year, available from day one, paid at their normal rate and without any requirement to provide evidence. On several points, the DfE has moved further in favour of victims and survivors than it proposed in 2024.
The Domestic Abuse (Safe Leave) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 (the Act) created a framework for a statutory right to paid leave for employees and workers affected by domestic abuse. However, as is often the case, much of the detail of how the leave would work in practice was left to be fleshed out in subsequent regulations. The Department for the Economy consulted on those regulations between 5 July and 27 September 2024, receiving 55 responses from individuals, employers, trade unions, employer bodies and charities, and it published its departmental response on 23 October 2026.
We summarise the key points below.
What will the new right look like?
Who is entitled?
All eligible employees and workers will be entitled to 10 days of paid safe leave in each leave year. Importantly, the entitlement will not be pro-rated, so full-time and part-time staff will receive the same 10 days, regardless of working hours or pattern. The DfE’s rationale is that the practical steps needed to secure safety do not reduce simply because someone works fewer hours, and that a uniform rule is simpler for employers to communicate and administer.
The response describes the framework as supporting access to leave from the beginning of employment or engagement, so there is no indication of a qualifying service period.
How is domestic abuse defined?
Domestic abuse will be defined broadly and specifically for safe leave purposes. It will cover physical, psychological, sexual, financial and emotional abuse, together with controlling and coercive behaviour, all of which received unanimous support in the consultation. Importantly, the DfE has chosen not to tie the definition to the criminal offence in the Domestic Abuse and Civil Proceedings Act (Northern Ireland) 2021, so there is no suggestion that abuse must have been reported, investigated or established as a criminal offence before the right can be used.
The right will arise following a single incident of domestic abuse and there will be no requirement to show a pattern or course of conduct.
However, the definition is not entirely unrestricted. The abuse must be by a person “connected” to the victim and the regulations will cover current and former intimate partners (spouses, civil partners, cohabitants and those in intimate relationships) and specified family relationships, including parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, siblings and step-relations. Despite suggestions from respondents, the DfE does not intend at this stage to extend this to carers, extended family members such as aunts, uncles and cousins, or cohabitants who are not partners, although it will keep the definition under review.
What can the leave be used for?
Section 1 of the Act already lists issues related to domestic abuse for which safe leave can be taken, including:-
- obtaining legal advice and pursuing legal remedies;
- finding alternative accommodation;
- accessing healthcare (including mental health care);
- obtaining welfare support; and
- protecting family members.
The list is non-exhaustive and will remain so, however, in response to strong consultation feedback, the regulations will also expressly add making financial arrangements, such as dealing with banking, joint accounts, direct debits and mortgages, recognising the distinct role of economic abuse. This is a shift from the original consultation, which had suggested that adding further issues to the regulations might not be necessary.
How can leave be taken?
- Flexibility: leave can be taken in full working days or half working days, an improvement on the consultation, which described the leave as being taken only in single days. Shorter periods will not be provided for, which the DfE considers gives employers a clear and administrable standard.
- Notification: the employee or worker must tell their employer that the absence is being taken as safe leave as soon as reasonably practicable. This core requirement will be set out in the regulations themselves. Notification after the leave has started will be permitted where earlier notice was not reasonably practicable and guidance will cover notification by an appropriate third party.
- No evidence required: employers will not be able to require evidence of abuse or documentary confirmation of a specific appointment or activity.
- No disclosure of purpose: the employee or worker will not have to disclose the specific purpose of the leave or details of the abuse. This is perhaps the most significant shift from the consultation, which had floated requiring employees to give the reason for their absence and asked whether employers should be able to ask for the purpose of the leave. Any further disclosure must be voluntary and must never be a condition of eligibility. Employers will not be expected to investigate whether behaviour falls within the definition.
- Leave year: this will align, as far as appropriate, with the leave year for annual leave under the Working Time Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2016, so that employers can use their existing leave systems. It will, however, be a separate, standalone entitlement and must not be substituted for, deducted from or treated as annual leave.
Pay
Safe leave will be paid at the rate the person would normally have received had they been at work, including regular overtime, regular commission and regular bonuses, rather than basic pay only. The regulations are expected to set out calculation rules for normal, variable and irregular working patterns. Notably, the response does not repeat the consultation’s proposal to adapt the 12-week “week’s pay” averaging method, so the precise method remains to be seen. The cost will fall entirely on employers, although some respondents called for a recoverable statutory payment similar to statutory sick or maternity pay, the response does not propose one.
Enforcement and protection
Disputes will follow the familiar route of Labour Relations Agency Early Conciliation and the Industrial Tribunal. The regulations will provide protection from detriment for employees and workers, and for employees, protection from unfair dismissal.
When will it come in?
This remains uncertain. Notably, a number of consultation respondents had already expressed frustration that the right was not yet in place, given that the primary legislation was passed in 2022.
The DfE says it is finalising the regulations, which will be brought before the Assembly under the applicable statutory procedure and is developing statutory guidance in parallel through a stakeholder Working Group. The guidance will cover notice, leave, pay, privacy and secure handling of information, absence recording, interaction with other leave, detriment and dismissal protection, remedies and signposting to support. The DfE has also committed to awareness-raising before commencement and to revisiting its impact assessments, including for small and micro businesses.
Our current understanding is that DfE is aiming for the right to come into effect in April 2027 but with the regulations still to be laid and approved, that timetable is tight. Given the broad consensus behind safe leave and that it can be delivered under existing primary legislation, it may prove one of the more achievable elements of the Department’s ‘Good Jobs’ agenda (whilst the wider proposals face a less certain path).
What should employers do now?
Although the detail is still to be finalised, the shape of the right is now clear and employers should plan on the basis that it could arrive in 2027. In particular, employers should consider the following:
- Policies: review existing domestic abuse, leave and absence policies and plan a standalone safe leave policy reflecting day one eligibility, the 10-day entitlement, half-day increments and the light-touch notification process.
- Payroll and budgeting: assess how to calculate “normal” pay, including regular overtime, commission and bonus, and the cost of an unrecoverable 10 days’ paid leave per employee or worker.
- Confidentiality and data: consider how safe leave will be recorded on HR and time and attendance systems and on payslips, given the sensitivity of the data and the risk that visible codes or unusual pay could alert a perpetrator.
- Training: prepare line managers and HR to handle requests sensitively, without asking for evidence or reasons and to signpost to specialist support.
- Workers as well as employees: ensure that arrangements extend to workers, not just employees.
Watch for the regulations and guidance: as always, the precise drafting, particularly on pay calculation and notification will be crucial.
