Select committee: Petitions Committee
Recommendation 14
First Report - Impact of Covid-19 on new parents: one year on
Published 7 Oct 2021
Paragraph 50
Petitions Committee Impact of Covid-19 on new parents: one year on All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
We echo our recommendation from last year’s report that the Government should legislate as soon as possible to introduce its planned extension of redundancy protections for new and expectant mothers. It must clarify a timeframe for doing this, and, if there is not sufficient parliamentary time to consider a full Employment Bill before the end of the year, the Government should immediately bring forward a short Bill specifically to implement these protections.
From: Petitions Committee, First Report - Impact of Covid-19 on new parents: one year on (HC 479), paragraph 50, 7 October 2021
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 7 March 2022 (deadline 7 December 2021).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The government sets out funding and support for new parents but states it "will not be developing an isolated strategy" on the pandemic's impact, and "will not be launching an independent review of childcare at this time".
- On mental health and early years support, it points to existing and announced measures, including £100 million for bespoke mental health support for new and expectant parents and a £500 million families and early years package over three years.
- On redundancy protection, it "remains committed to extending" protections for new and expectant mothers and intends to introduce the measures "as soon as Parliamentary time allows", without giving a date.
- On extending the time limit for employment tribunal claims, it "continues to look closely" at the change but says it "will be given sufficient time for consideration".
- On Maternity Allowance in Universal Credit, it states "We have no plans to change the way that Maternity Allowance is treated in Universal Credit."