Julian works cross-party to support the Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Bill
November 3, 2022
While the activity in the House of Commons chamber, especially Prime Minister’s Questions, attracts the most attention, the majority of work a Member of Parliament does in Parliament takes place in the thousand other rooms in the Palace of Westminster. One example of this are the Bill Committees which take place each week and this week Julian was proud to be working with cross-party colleagues on the Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Bill.
The Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Bill is a Private Members’ bill, which has the support of the Government and Opposition. Private members’ bills are allocated to all Members of Parliament who do not hold ministerial positions via a ballot and in each session of parliament only a handful of bills are successful. Julian was fortunate to pass the Control of Horses Act in 2015 via this procedure.
The core objective of The Pregnancy and Maternity Discrimination Bill is to protect pregnant women, expectant parents and new parents returning to the workplace from redundancy. This Bill seeks to make provisions to protect expectant and new mothers from redundancy during or after pregnancy, or after periods of maternity, adoption and shared parental leave. This is a great opportunity to tackle maternity and workplace discrimination, an issue that has disproportionately and negatively affected women, whilst raising the profile of such an important, but often neglected issue.
Commenting after the Bill Committee, Julian said:
“Dan’s Bill is a step in the right direction to end workplace and maternity discrimination, along with safeguarding the jobs of women who chose to have a baby.
I am proud to support this honourable bill to become law and welcome the cross-party and government support”.
