Employees on Maternity leave are very highly protected.

If you are made redundant during Maternity Leave you are entitled to redundancy pay as if you were not on maternity leave. You may also have a number of other potential claims including automatic unfair dismissal, ordinary unfair dismissal or pregnancy and maternity discrimination.

If a redundancy situation arises during your maternity leave and "it is not practicable by reason of redundancy" for your employer to continue to employ you under your existing contract, you are entitled to be offered a suitable alternative vacancy (where one is available) to start immediately after your existing contract ends