The Pregnancy and Maternity Discrimination Bill, introduced by Dan Jarvis MP, means redundancy protection will be extended to pregnant women and new parents returning to work from a relevant form of leave.

This will help protect new parents and expectant mothers from workplace discrimination, offering them greater job security, the government said.

Under current rules, before offering redundancy to an employee on maternity, shared parental, or adoption leave, employers are obligated to offer a suitable alternative vacancy where one exists.

The bill will give new parents an expanded period covering from when a woman tells her employer she is pregnant until 18 months after the birth.