Employment Rights Act 2025: Maternity Changes Explained

Since 6 April 2026, an employee can take Paternity Leave or Unpaid Parental Leave from their first day in a job. Until then, both rights depended on how long the person had already worked for the employer.

That change is one of the first from the Employment Rights Act 2025 to reach the workplace. The measures that matter most to pregnant staff and to mothers returning from maternity leave are still waiting for regulations.

This guide separates what is law now, what has a confirmed date, and what the government has only said it intends to do. Every date comes from GOV.UK or legislation.gov.uk and is correct as at 9 October 2026.

What has already come into force?

On 6 April 2026, Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave became day-one rights and Statutory Sick Pay lost its waiting period. The Fair Work Agency was established on 7 April 2026. The time limit for an Employment Tribunal claim rose from 3 to 6 months on 1 October 2026.

The government's timeline of changes lists each measure under its date. Employees who were newly eligible for the two leave rights could give notice from 18 February 2026, ahead of the 6 April start (GOV.UK, 2026). GOV.UK now says an employee is eligible for Paternity Leave from the first day of employment. Statutory Paternity Pay keeps its own tests of 26 weeks of continuous employment and average weekly earnings of at least £129 (GOV.UK, 2026), so leave and pay need separate answers.

The same timeline records that the Lower Earnings Limit and the waiting period for Statutory Sick Pay were removed on 6 April 2026 (GOV.UK, 2026). GOV.UK gives the weekly rate as £123.25, or 80% of normal weekly earnings if that is lower (GOV.UK, 2026). The 6 April date also brought up to 52 weeks of Bereaved Partner's Paternity Leave where the mother or primary adopter dies within the child's first year (GOV.UK, 2026).

What starts on 30 October 2026 and 1 January 2027?

On 30 October 2026, employers must take "all reasonable steps" to prevent sexual harassment of their employees and must not permit harassment of them by third parties. On 1 January 2027, the qualifying period for ordinary unfair dismissal falls from 2 years to 6 months. Fire and rehire protections are also due in January 2027.

The harassment duty already sits in the Equality Act 2010, and section 20 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 adds the word "all" to it. Regulation 3 of SI 2026/1065 brings sections 20, 21 and 22 into force on 30 October 2026. Section 22 gives ministers a power to specify the steps employers must take (GOV.UK, 2026).

On unfair dismissal, section 25 replaces 2 years with 6 months in the qualifying period and removes the limit on the compensatory award. The commencement regulations apply the change where the effective date of termination falls on or after 1 January 2027, even if the dismissal was notified earlier (Legislation.gov.uk, 2026). Probation reviews will now sit inside a period when an unfair dismissal claim is possible.

What is planned for pregnant staff, flexible working and bereavement leave in 2027?

The government has said it will make it unlawful to dismiss pregnant women, mothers on maternity leave and mothers in their first 6 months back at work, except in specific circumstances. Changes to flexible working and bereavement leave, including pregnancy loss, are also due in 2027. The GOV.UK timeline gives no month for any of them.

The consultation on dismissal protections ran from 23 October 2025 to 15 January 2026. At 9 October 2026 its page says the feedback is being analysed and the outcome will be published later (GOV.UK, 2026). The Act supplies the power: section 26 lets the Secretary of State make regulations on dismissal, other than by redundancy, during or after a protected pregnancy period. Until those regulations exist, the scope, start date and exceptions are unknown.

On flexible working, section 9 allows an employer to refuse a request only if a listed ground applies and it is reasonable to refuse on that ground. A refusal notice must name the ground and explain why refusal is reasonable. The GOV.UK timeline lists flexible working under 2027, so treat the new test as not yet operating until a date is confirmed.

Section 18 turns parental bereavement leave into bereavement leave. It defines pregnancy loss as the end of a pregnancy before 24 weeks other than by live birth, or an embryo failing to implant after a transfer in fertility treatment. Regulations will set who qualifies and how much leave they receive.

What law protects pregnant staff and mothers now?

The Equality Act 2010 already makes it unlawful to treat a woman unfavourably because of her pregnancy or maternity leave. Since 6 April 2024, redundancy protection has started when an employee tells her employer she is pregnant and run until 18 months after the birth. Within that period, she must be offered a suitable alternative vacancy first.

Section 18 of the Equality Act 2010 covers unfavourable treatment because of pregnancy, because of an illness resulting from the pregnancy, and because of compulsory maternity leave. Statutory Maternity Leave lasts 52 weeks (GOV.UK, 2026).

The Maternity Leave, Adoption Leave and Shared Parental Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024 came into force on 6 April 2024 and extended the redundancy protection to adoption leave and shared parental leave as well. Acas guidance says the protected period ends 18 months from the exact date of birth, or from the expected week of childbirth if the employer has not been told the date. The protected employee has priority for a suitable alternative vacancy over other employees, even where they are also suitable. The extended period applies where the employee told her employer of the pregnancy, or began maternity leave, on or after 6 April 2024. It covers employees only, and a failure to follow the rules might be automatically unfair dismissal (Acas, 2026).

What should employers check in policies and manager training now?

Start with the certain dates. Before 30 October 2026, check that harassment risk assessments, reporting routes and manager training meet an "all reasonable steps" standard, third parties included. Before 1 January 2027, review probation and dismissal procedures, because employees with 6 months of service can then bring an ordinary unfair dismissal claim.

Next, check what is already live. Your paternity and parental leave policies should no longer ask for a minimum length of service, and your sick pay process should have no waiting days. Redundancy selection needs a step that identifies anyone who is pregnant, on family leave or within 18 months of a birth, and a step that offers them suitable vacancies first. Managers should pass on a pregnancy announcement to HR the same day, because the protected period starts when the employee tells the employer.

Then prepare for 2027 without waiting for the final wording. Record the reason for every flexible working decision in writing, since a refusal you cannot explain is hard to defend under any test. Decide now how a manager should respond when an employee loses a pregnancy, because the law will define leave for it.

Policy changes work when a manager can apply them in a conversation with a mother. Our post on why mothers leave work after maternity leave covers what happens after the paperwork is right, and our look at employee assistance programmes and maternity support covers support between appointments.

What would better support look like from the system's side?

The law sets a floor at fixed points: notification, redundancy, a flexible working request. Better infrastructure covers the months between those points. It gives an employee a named route to HR from the day she announces a pregnancy, planned conversations before and after leave, and managers who know what the law requires.

Most of the rules above trigger on an event. The protected period starts on an announcement, a flexible working right starts with a request, and a tribunal claim starts after something has gone wrong. Between those events, a mother is deciding whether the job still works for her, and nobody has been asked to check.

Rights go to mothers, deadlines go to employers, and the months in between go unobserved. A written timetable of contact points across pregnancy, leave and return, owned by a named person, closes much of that gap.

This article is general information, not legal advice, so take advice on your own circumstances.

About Matresa

Matresa is a UK digital maternal health platform, currently pre-launch, offering one personalised pathway from pregnancy to the child's second birthday. It gives employers an anonymised, aggregated dashboard showing how ready their returning parents are. It was founded by Mari-Carmen Sanchez-Morris, a mother of 3 with a nursing background in paediatric intensive care.

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