Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023

Under the Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act 2023 employees are entitled to enhanced protection from redundancy if they:

• are pregnant, or
• are currently on maternity, adoption, neonatal care, or shared parental leave, or
• have taken a period of maternity or adoption leave, or a minimum of one continuous six-week block of shared parental leave or neonatal care leave, and where the child was born or placed within the past 18 months, or
• have had a miscarriage within the last 2 weeks, or
• have had a stillbirth within the last 18 months.

The enhanced protection from redundancy under legislation, means that these employees (see list above) must be given ‘priority candidate status’ for suitable redeployment opportunities during the period in which they are considered to be at risk of redundancy. This includes employees who are on fixed-term contracts during the final 3 months of the contract, or for unplanned redundancies the date at which the employee is put at risk. 

A suitable redeployment opportunity is one for which the employee meets the essential selection criteria and which is at the same grade or lower.  See Priority candidates | HR Support for further information.

As part of the end of fixed-term contract and redundancy processes all priority candidates are asked to provide their departments with an up-to-date CV.  This enables departments to:

• consider them for vacancies arising within the department before these are advertised; and
• support them in identifying suitable vacancies that have been advertised in other departments.  

When a potential vacancy arises within the same department, the CV of any employees who qualify under the Protection from Redundancy legislation should be considered against the essential criteria for the post.  This should be carried out ahead of any other candidates including other priority candidates (unless they also qualify under the criteria set out above).  In managing such vacancies, departments must ensure that:

• any identified priority candidates are considered against the essential criteria before any other candidates;
• the role is not advertised until all identified priority candidates within the department have been considered;
• a competitive recruitment process should only be applied to qualifying employees where more than one employee who qualifies for these protections meets the essential criteria; and
• where only one redeployee meets these criteria, the role should be offered to them.

The protection applies regardless of the employee’s length of service.  

In all such cases please consult your HR Business Partner.

Further information on the appropriate fixed-term contract ending procedure can be found via the following links:

• Fixed-term contracts: as end date approaches (less than 2 years’ service)
• Fixed-term contracts: as end date approaches (2 or more years’ service)