Despite their obvious importance to you and your business, you may be getting a little tired of hearing the letters F, C, and A, especially if your business is already fully compliant. But what about non-FCA regulation changes on the horizon? We asked a selection of legal experts for their advice on regulatory developments in the year ahead:

Nicola Porter, legal advisor, Lawgistics

Shared parental leave

The final Shared Parental Leave Regulations have just been published. However, the regulations are only applicable to babies born on or after April 5, 2015. In essence, parents will be able to share between them a period of 52 weeks leave when they have a child.

The rules in regards to pay will remain the same (only 39 weeks will be paid).

The mother must take the first two weeks as compulsory leave, and ordinary paternity leave will remain in place (father has the first two weeks off). If the remaining period is split, this could affect a lot of businesses, especially those in a male-dominated environment.

At this stage it is unknown how many fathers will take up this opportunity, but dealers must be prepared to accept requests from April 5. We would recommend evaluating all maternity, paternity, and adoption leave policies now.