ERA reforms in depth: Maternity, pregnancy and gender equality

Both of these areas of reform (gender action plans and dismissal protections for pregnant employees and new mothers) are expected to come into force in 2027. It is not clear at this stage when in 2027 this will be and whether both reforms will be brought into force at the same time.

Current position

When it comes to dismissal protections, there are relatively limited additional protections for pregnant employees and those who are on, or who have recently returned from, family-related leave. The main additional protection is a requirement in a redundancy situation for such employees to be offered suitable alternative vacancies, where available. In April 2024, this additional protection was extended to pregnant employees and those returning from maternity, adoption and eligible shared parental leave.

For pay gap reporting, all employers with 250 or more employees are required to publish data on their gender pay gap every year, but there is no requirement to publish an action plan with this data.

What is changing?

The three key areas of reform outlined in the Act which are relevant to gender equality are:

• Dismissal protections – The Act itself contains relatively little information about this reform. Instead, it introduces a provision enabling the Secretary of State to issue regulations concerning dismissals during pregnancy and after maternity leave (and other types of family-related leave, such as adoption and shared parental leave).
  
  In Next Steps to Make Work Pay, the government stated that it intends to make it unlawful to dismiss pregnant employees and new mothers within 6 months of their return to work, except for in specific circumstances. We should find out more about the government’s plans for these protections soon as consultation is expected imminently. On 23 October 2025, the government launched a consultation (which you can access here) seeking views on the scope of these proposed new protections for pregnant employees and new mothers. Key topics covered in the consultation include:
  • What the ‘specific circumstances’ enabling an employer to fairly dismiss a pregnant employee or new mother (a protected employee) should be. The government included two potential options in the consultation paper. The first option would be to introduce a stricter standard that employers would be required to meet when defending a claim of unfair dismissal from a protected employee. The second option, which the government explores in more depth in the consultation, would be to remove or narrow some of the existing potential fair reasons for dismissal, where the dismissal relates to a protected employee. For example, might ‘capability’ or ‘some other substantial reason’ be removed as fair reasons for dismissal for protected employees, meaning that, for example, a pregnant employee could only be fairly dismissed on the grounds of conduct, redundancy, or a statutory prohibition?
  • Whether the protection should kick in from the start of employment or after a qualifying period.
  • Whether the protections should extend beyond pregnant employees and new mothers to those who take other types of family-related leave such as adoption leave or shared parental leave. The government confirmed it is not considering paternity leave as part of the enhanced dismissal protection – it notes that paternity leave is only for up to two weeks and there are already standard protections in place against dismissal for employees who take or have taken paternity leave. The government intends to explore any potential impact on paternity leave of the enhanced dismissal protection as part of its ongoing review of the UK’s parental leave and pay system (read more about this review here).
  • When the protection window (during which the employee benefits from this enhanced protection) should end. Two options put forward by the government in the consultation are 18 months after the birth of the child or six months after the end of maternity leave.
• Gender equality action plans – Acknowledging that reporting alone has not brought about significant change, large employers (those with 250 or more employees) will be required to create and publish action plans showing the steps they are taking to address their gender pay gap and the steps they are taking to support employees through the menopause. Separate regulations will be published which will provide further details regarding these action plans, including what they will need to contain and how frequently they will need to be revised.

• Outsourced workers – The Act contains powers enabling regulations to be issued that would expand the information that large employers must provide as part of their gender pay gap reporting to include information about the service providers that they contract with for outsourced services (but not the gender pay gap data of such providers).

As the Act does not include many details about the reforms concerning pregnant employees and new mothers, much will hinge on the contents of the supporting regulations which will be issued in due course. At this stage, we can get a flavour for what the regulations might contain from reviewing the consultation launched on 23 October 2025. We have explored some of the key questions from that consultation above.

There are limited steps that employers can take to prepare for this enhanced protection at this stage. However, there is one preparatory action that employers can take – employers should review the systems that they have in place to identify which of its employees are pregnant, are on maternity/adoption/shared parental leave and/or have recently returned from such leave. Employers should already have some systems in place as part of the enhanced redundancy protections introduced in April 2024 so it should largely be a case of confirming that these systems are working effectively and can be adapted to cover not just those who are subject to a redundancy exercise.

Once the government responds to the consultation, we should learn more about who will be protected – Next Steps to Make Work Pay refers to ‘new mothers’ but the Act allows for protections to also be put in place for those returning from other types of family-related leave, such as adoption and shared parental leave. This is a point that the government seeks views on in the consultation. Until the government confirms its position on this point, we suggest that employers also check that their systems can identify who is on, or has recently returned from, adoption and shared parental leave, as well as maternity leave.

Large employers will need to keep a close eye on the gender pay gap reporting reforms. Many already voluntarily produce an action plan to accompany their gender pay gap data (although possibly not menopause action plans). Once regulations are published with further detail, large employers should start considering what they will include in their first action plan or how they will revisit their existing action plans to ensure they are compliant.

Employers will also need to ensure that their gender pay gap data reporting complies with any new requirements surrounding service provider information.