Antenatal Appointments, Your Obligations as an Employer, and What’s Changing
Let’s be honest. When an employee knocks on the door and mentions the word ‘pregnant’, the reaction in many small businesses is not entirely composed. There is a moment, however brief, however quickly suppressed, of mental arithmetic. Who covers the work? What does this cost? How long will they be gone? Before the “Congratulations”.
That moment is entirely human. It is also, depending on what happens next, a legal liability in the making.
One of the areas most likely to land an employer in an Employment Tribunal, often because it seems so minor, is the management of antenatal appointments. Time off for a scan. A midwife visit on a Tuesday afternoon. Asking someone to ‘make the time back’. These are not trivial matters. They are statutory rights, and getting them wrong is discriminatory.
This piece sets out the law as it stands, what has already changed under the Employment Rights Act 2025, and what is still coming. We have also produced a ready-to-use notification and request form for your business, free to download.
The Legal Framework: What the Law Already Requires
The Pregnant Employee’s Right
The right to paid time off for antenatal appointments has been part of UK employment law since the Employment Rights Act 1996 and has not changed substantively. What surprises many employers is how broad and unconditional it is.
Every pregnant employee, regardless of length of service, hours worked, or contract type, is entitled to paid time off to attend antenatal care. There is no waiting period. There is no qualifying service requirement. It is a day one right.
‘Antenatal care’ is defined widely. It includes:
- Routine midwife appointments and GP visits
- Hospital scans and blood tests
- Pregnancy-related specialist consultations
- Antenatal classes, including relaxation and birth preparation classes, provided a registered medical practitioner, midwife or nurse has recommended them
Notably, private ‘souvenir’ scans or elective appointments not recommended by a clinician do not automatically fall within this right, though many employers choose to accommodate them as a matter of good practice.
Pay During Antenatal Appointments
The time off must be paid at the employee’s normal rate. The employer cannot ask the employee to make up the time, take it as annual leave, or record it as unpaid absence. Paid time off includes reasonable travel time to and from the appointment.
How Much Time Off is ‘Reasonable’?
The legislation deliberately avoids setting a fixed number of appointments or hours. The right is to a ‘reasonable’ amount of time off. As every pregnancy differs, what is reasonable will vary. A straightforward pregnancy may involve ten to fifteen appointments across its duration. Complications or multiple pregnancies will require more. Employers should approach this with flexibility rather than calculation.
Evidence and Appointment Cards
After the first appointment, employers are entitled to request evidence that the appointment exists. This is typically an appointment card or a letter from a midwife or GP. The key word is ‘after’. An employer cannot require proof before the first appointment has taken place. Refusing time off because no appointment card has yet been issued is unlawful.
Reminder: You may ask for evidence from the second appointment onwards. You cannot withhold paid time off at the first appointment on the grounds that no card has been produced. The right applies unconditionally from the outset.
Partners, Fathers and Others: The Supporting Role
Since October 2014, employees who are partners of pregnant women have held a statutory right to take time off to attend antenatal appointments. This right is broader than many employers realise. It applies to:
- The biological father
- The expectant mother’s spouse, civil partner or partner (of either sex) in an enduring relationship
- A woman who is to be treated as the legal parent of the child
- Intended parents in a surrogacy arrangement who expect to apply for a parental order
The right allows the partner to attend up to two antenatal appointments per pregnancy. Each appointment is capped at 6.5 hours, which is designed to cover travel time as well as the appointment itself.
This time off is currently unpaid as a statutory minimum. However, a number of employers choose to pay for this time as a matter of contract or policy, and it is a relatively low-cost gesture of good will with significant cultural value.
The partner right is a day one right for employees. For agency workers, it arises after the 12-week qualifying period unless the agency worker holds employee status, in which case the day one right applies.
A practical note: Do not assume ‘partner’ means spouse. The right extends to civil partners, same-sex partners, and anyone in an enduring relationship with the expectant mother. Treating a cohabiting partner differently from a married spouse is really likely to create an equality risk.
What the Employment Rights Act 2025 Changes
What Has Already Changed (April 2026)
The Employment Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025. Implementation is phased, with a significant tranche of changes taking effect from April 2026. The changes most relevant to pregnancy and family life include:
- Paternity leave is now a day one right. The previous 26-week qualifying period has been removed. Employees can take paternity leave from the very start of their employment.
- Unpaid parental leave is now a day one right. The previous one-year service requirement has gone. Employees with responsibility for a child under 18 can request up to 18 weeks of unpaid parental leave without any waiting period.
- Neonatal Care Leave and Pay (in force from April 2025) provides up to 12 weeks of leave and pay for parents of babies admitted to neonatal hospital care within the first 28 days of life for a period of seven days or more.
Effective from 6 April 2026: If you have not already updated your employment contracts, staff handbook and HR procedures to remove references to the 26-week paternity and 52-week parental leave qualifying periods, this is a matter of urgency. You may already be inadvertently refusing rights that employees have held since April 2026.
What Is Coming in 2027
The most significant changes affecting pregnancy and maternity are still in preparation. The Employment Rights Act 2025 confers power on the Government to introduce enhanced dismissal protections for pregnant workers, those on maternity leave, and those who have returned from maternity leave. Following a consultation that closed in January 2026, these protections are expected to be introduced during 2027.
The anticipated position is as follows:
- It will become unlawful to dismiss a pregnant employee during pregnancy, during maternity leave, or within six months of her return to work, except in specific limited circumstances such as gross misconduct or business closure.
- This enhanced protection will not be limited to redundancy situations. It will cover all forms of dismissal.
- The qualifying period for ordinary unfair dismissal claims reduces from two years to six months, with effect from January 2027. Any employee who commences employment from 1 July 2026 onwards will benefit from this reduced qualifying period.
- The compensatory award cap for unfair dismissal will be removed from January 2027, meaning Tribunal awards are no longer subject to the current statutory ceiling.
The practical implication for SMEs is significant. Once these provisions come into force, the risk of dismissal claims from employees with relatively short service, and in particular from pregnant employees and new mothers, will increase substantially. The combination of enhanced protection from dismissal, reduced qualifying period for general claims, and uncapped awards creates a landscape in which early-stage employment decisions, including those made during probationary periods, will carry considerably greater legal risk.
Future-Proofing: Review your probationary period process now. If a pregnant employee is in probation, the rules for managing that situation are already strict under existing law, and they are about to become stricter. A dismissal during pregnancy or shortly after return from maternity leave that might have been defensible under current law may not be defensible post-2027.
Get in touch before making any decision to dismiss an employee who is pregnant, on maternity leave or who has recently returned.
What About IVF and Fertility Treatment?
There is currently no statutory right to paid time off for IVF treatment or appointments connected with fertility treatment. The Government considered introducing such a right in late 2025 but has no immediate plans to do so.
However, employers should not treat this as a licence to ignore these appointments entirely. ACAS guidance is clear that IVF and fertility-related appointments should be treated in the same way as other medical appointments for employment purposes. Treating an employee less favourably because of IVF treatment they are undergoing will, once a pregnancy is established, engage the protections of the Equality Act 2010. The position before pregnancy is established carries some nuance in law, but a pragmatic approach, offering flexibility and sensitivity, is strongly advisable.
Common Mistakes Employers Make
Over more than twenty-six years of advising SMEs, we have seen similar issues arise repeatedly. Here are the most common errors:
1. Asking an employee to make the time back
This is unlawful, full stop. Antenatal appointment time is paid, statutory leave. It cannot be offset against working hours, docked from annual leave or treated as a favour to be repaid.
2. Requiring proof before the first appointment
Employers can request evidence after the first appointment only. Requiring documentation up front, or refusing time off because no card has been produced yet, exposes the employer to a discrimination claim.
3. Refusing to pay for travel time
The right to paid time off includes reasonable travel time. An employee who spends forty minutes travelling to a hospital scan is entitled to be paid for that time as well as the appointment itself.
4. Treating partners differently based on relationship status
The partner right applies equally to married and unmarried partners, civil partners, and same-sex couples. Applying a different standard to any of these groups is likely to give rise to an Equality Act risk.
5. Ignoring the right entirely on the basis that ‘it is only a scan’
Unfavourable treatment because of pregnancy-related appointments is pregnancy discrimination under the Equality Act 2010. A dismissal connected to an employee’s antenatal appointments is automatically unfair dismissal. The consequences include unlimited Equality Act compensation and a basic award for unfair dismissal.
What You Should Do Now
Managing pregnancy-related matters well is not complicated. It requires a clear process and a tone of good faith. Here is what we recommend:
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Ensure your policies or handbook are up to date and have a section on pregnancy, maternity and antenatal rights that reflects the April 2026 changes.
- Train your line managers. Most claims arise not from deliberate discrimination but from ignorance of the rules. A manager who asks an employee to ‘make up the time’ for a midwife appointment probably does not know they are doing anything wrong.
- Use a simple notification and request process, so that time off is recorded accurately and any evidence requirements are managed properly. Our free form is available to download below.
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If you have any doubt about how to manage a situation involving a pregnant employee, a potential dismissal, or a grievance relating to maternity, contact us before acting. The cost of any advice if you are not already a retained client is much less than the cost of a Tribunal claim.
Freebie – Antenatal Appointment Eligibility Form
You CAN ask the employee to complete an antenatal appointment eligibility declaration in which they confirm:
- That they qualify for the unpaid time off through their relationship with the mother or child;
- The time off is for the purpose of attending an antenatal appointment with the expectant mother; and
- The appointment been made on the advice of a registered medical practitioner, nurse or midwife
The form isn’t a legal requirement, but the employee will forfeit their right to time off if you ask for it and they fail to complete it.
Get your free Antenatal Appointment Eligibility Form:
