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Pregnancy: Redundancy

Asked by Zarah SultanaYour PartyDepartment for Business and TradeTabled Answered 22 October 2025UIN 81987

The question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of extending redundancy protection to 18 months for employees experiencing pregnancy loss at any stage of pregnancy.

Answered by Kate Dearden

If an employee experiences pregnancy loss within the first 24 weeks of pregnancy, the redundancy protected period ends two weeks from the end of the pregnancy. After a stillbirth from 24 weeks, the protected period ends 18 months from the date of birth.

The Employment Rights Bill establishes a new right to bereavement leave, including pregnancy loss, and powers to provide protections around redundancy and dismissal. A primary driver of the existing enhanced redundancy protections is to protect those who take lengthy absences from work on statutory family leave and thus may be at a disadvantage in a redundancy situation.

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