New government data shows most mothers return to work at six to nine months — and more than a third plan to stop or cut back breastfeeding when they do. UK law does not mention expressing milk at all.
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There is no legal requirement for a British employer to provide a breastfeeding mother with anywhere to express milk.
Not a private room. Not a fridge. Not time.
The only duty in law sits in Regulation 25 of the Workplace (Health, Safety and Welfare) Regulations 1992, and it reads, in full: "Suitable facilities shall be provided for any person at work who is a pregnant woman or nursing mother to rest."
The words "expressing" and "breastfeeding" do not appear. As ACAS puts it: "Parliament has not legislated to make breastfeeding/expressing breaks in the workplace a statutory requirement."
Confronted with a working mother, the British statute book imagines somewhere...
