This petition was rejected

The Government e-Petitions Team gave the following reason:

We understand that you want the Government to change entitlements for new mothers, but it's not clear exactly what you want the Government to do.

The Maternity Protection (Amendment) Act 2004 is an Irish Act, and does not apply in the UK.

It's also not clear if you want the Government to allow new mothers to postpone maternity leave, so they delay starting this leave during the pandemic, or extend the length of maternity leave.

We have already published the following petition, which you might like to sign:

Extend maternity leave by 3 months with pay in light of COVID-19: petition.parliament.uk/petitions/306691

If what you want is for the Government to allow all new mothers to postpone the start of their maternity leave, you could start a new petition requesting this, but it would need to be clear this is what you want to happen, and couldn't imply that legislation for another jurisdiction applied in the UK.

You can find out more about coronavirus and how you can protect yourself and others here:

www.gov.uk/coronavirus
www.nhs.uk/conditions/coronavirus-covid-19/

The Government has also created an online service to help you find out what you can do if you’re struggling because of coronavirus: www.gov.uk/find-coronavirus-support

You can read NHS tips to help if you are worried about coronavirus here: www.nhs.uk/oneyou/every-mind-matters/coronavirus-covid-19-anxiety-tips

You can read impartial analysis of the Government response to coronavirus and policy developments here: commonslibrary.parliament.uk/coronavirus/

You may also be interested to know that because of the large number of petitions that have been started in relation to coronavirus, the Petitions Committee has been questioning the Government about its response to the coronavirus outbreak.

Find out more: committees.parliament.uk/work/192/the-governments-response-to-coronavirus/