Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to tackle discrimination against women who are expecting or have children; and what recent assessment he has made of the effectiveness of legislation on maternity and flexible working pay.

On 26 January the Government responded to the Women and Equalities Select Committee report on pregnancy and maternity discrimination, setting out measures to protect pregnant women and new mothers in the workplace. This included a commitment to review existing redundancy protections. A copy of that response can be found here.

The parental leave and pay system was reviewed in 2011 as part of the modern workplaces consultation. This resulted in the introduction of the Shared Parental Leave and Pay system in 2015 and the extension of the Right to Request Flexible Working to all employees with six months’ continuous service in 2014. These policies are due to be evaluated in 2018-2019.