10.—(1) Subject to this Act, when a confirmation document has been prepared and signed in accordance with section 9, the employee concerned shall not be entitled to work in the employment concerned during the period of parental leave specified in the document.

F20[(2) Notwithstanding subsection (1), if, after the date of a confirmation document (whether or not the period of parental leave to which it relates has commenced)—

(a) the employer concerned or his or her successor and the employee concerned so agree, the leave or part of it may be postponed to such time as may be so agreed upon, the period of such leave may be curtailed in such manner and to such extent as may be so agreed upon or the form of the leave may be varied in such manner as may be so agreed upon, and in such a case the confirmation document shall be amended accordingly, or

(b) the employee concerned becomes F21[ill or incapacitated] such that the employee is unable to care for the child the subject of the parental leave to which the confirmation document relates, then the employee may, by notice in writing given to the employer concerned or his or her successor, as soon as is reasonably practicable after becoming F21[ill or incapacitated], and accompanied by the relevant evidence in respect of the F21[illness or incapacity]—

(i) if the period of parental leave has not commenced, postpone the taking of the leave to such time as the employee is no longer sick, or

(ii) if the period of parental leave has commenced, suspend the taking of the balance of the leave to such time as the employee is no longer sick,

and in such a case the confirmation document shall be deemed to be amended accordingly.]

(3) Where parental leave is curtailed under F20[subsection (2)(a)] or Part IV, the parental leave not taken by reason of the curtailment may be taken at such other time as may be agreed upon by the parties concerned.

F22[(4) If, solely because of the postponement or suspension under subsection (2)(b) of the taking of parental leave, or of the taking of the balance of parental leave, as the case may be, the period of the parental leave ends by virtue of the operation of section 6(2), then the event which causes that period to so end shall be deemed, for the purposes of this Act, to have occurred after the end of that period.

(5) In subsection (2)(b), "relevant evidence", in relation to an employee, means—

(a) a medical certificate—

(i) stating that the employee named in the certificate is, by reason of the F21[illness or incapacity] specified in the certificate, unable to care for the child named in the certificate, and

(ii) signed by a registered medical practitioner within the meaning of section 2 of the Medical Practitioners Act 1978,

or

(b) if the employee does not have a medical certificate referred to in paragraph (a), such evidence as the employer concerned or his or her successor may reasonably require in order to show that the employee is, by reason of F21[illness or incapacity], unable to care for the child concerned.]