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Section 17: Pregnancy and maternity discrimination: non-work cases

Equality Act 2010 · 2010 c. 15View on legislation.gov.uk

Part 2: Equality: key concepts — Chapter 2: Prohibited conduct

This section has effect for the purposes of the application to the protected characteristic of pregnancy and maternity of—

Part 3 (services and public functions);
Part 4 (premises);
Part 6 (education);
Part 7 (associations).

A person (A) discriminates against a woman if A treats her unfavourably because of a pregnancy of hers.

A person (A) discriminates against a woman if, in the period of 26 weeks beginning with the day on which she gives birth, A treats her unfavourably because she has given birth.

The reference in subsection (3) to treating a woman unfavourably because she has given birth includes, in particular, a reference to treating her unfavourably because she is breast-feeding.

For the purposes of this section, the day on which a woman gives birth is the day on which—

she gives birth to a living child, or
she gives birth to a dead child (more than 24 weeks of the pregnancy having passed).

Section 13, so far as relating to sex discrimination, does not apply to anything done in relation to a woman in so far as—

it is for the reason mentioned in subsection (2), or
it is in the period, and for the reason, mentioned in subsection (3).

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This legislation text comes from legislation.gov.uk. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. These source and reuse terms cover the legislation text, not Remedy's commentary.

Reuse reviewed 21 August 2026 under Open Government Licence v3.0.