The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces a new statutory day-one right to unpaid bereavement leave. This also covers pregnancy loss before 24 weeks.
What is the new right?
Employees will be entitled to two weeks of unpaid bereavement leave in the event of the death of a qualifying relative, or a pregnancy loss which occurs before 24 weeks. This is the statutory minimum. Employers are free to offer paid or additional bereavement leave, but the government has expressly ruled out introducing statutory pay for the new entitlement.
Eligibility
Eligible relationships for bereavement leave are immediate family members. This covers spouses, civil partners and partners in a committed long-term relationship (irrespective of cohabiting status), parents, adult children and siblings, as well as equivalent parental relationships for employees raised in kinship or foster care arrangements. The entitlement also extends to biological, adopted, step and half-relations within each of these categories.
This marks a step away from the more limited definition of eligible relationships used in the existing rights to time off for dependants and carer’s leave (spouse, civil partner, parent, child or someone in the same household that isn’t a tenant, lodger or employee) and reflects the government’s aim of recognising the diverse and evolving make-up of families.
Whilst some will be disappointed that extended family relationships such as grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins are not recognised, the government’s response states that employers should speak with bereaved employees and consider whether their own policies should go further than the statutory minimum.
Statutory bereavement leave only covers adult children as the new entitlement is entirely separate to the existing parental bereavement leave regime which provides up to two weeks’ leave, together with statutory pay subject to qualifying criteria, following the death of a child or a stillbirth after 24 weeks.
In respect of pregnancy loss, 93% of respondents to the government’s consultation agreed that bereavement leave for pregnancy loss should not be restricted to the pregnant individual. It is therefore unsurprising that the government decided the leave entitlement will include the pregnant individual, their partner, the other parent, an intended co-parent and the intended parents in a surrogacy arrangement.
The government has also confirmed that all types of pregnancy loss before 24 weeks (including all miscarriages, terminations and IVF embryo transfer loss) will be included in the entitlement as expected.
Duration, timing and flexibility
Employees will be entitled to up to two weeks of leave, prorated to their usual working pattern. Whilst the consultation asked whether different types of bereavement should result in different lengths of leave, the government has settled on two weeks for all types of bereavement. Again, this is the statutory minimum and employers can choose to offer additional leave. The government also recognises that some employees may need longer way from work where they experience ongoing physical or mental health effects following a bereavement or pregnancy loss. In those circumstances, the usual rules on sickness absence and pay may apply.
In terms of timing, the government has confirmed that the leave will be available to be taken within 56 weeks of the date of death, or from the date the employee becomes aware of the death. This is to allow employees to take leave around difficult periods such as due dates, birthdays or anniversaries, and aligns with the existing parental bereavement leave regime which ensures consistency for employers. The leave can begin on the day of the pregnancy loss or death or the date that the employee becomes aware of it.
The leave can be taken discontinuously, in periods of one day at a time. This recognises that the impact of grief is different for everyone, so whilst many employees may take their leave as one block in the immediate aftermath, allowing leave to be taken discontinuously provides employees with greater flexibility.
This flexibility may, however, create some practical challenges for employers. Individual days of leave can be taken at different points over the 56-week period, which may make workforce planning more difficult, particularly for shift-based, client-facing or smaller teams where cover is limited.
Employees will also be protected from detriment or dismissal for exercising their statutory right to bereavement leave.
Notice
The government has adopted a two‑tier model for notice. For leave taken within the first eight weeks of the bereavement, notice is only required before the employee starts work on the day that they intend to take the leave, or as soon as is reasonably possible afterwards. For leave taken after eight weeks of the bereavement, at least one week of notice is required.
The one-week notice requirement for leave taken after the first eight weeks provides some scope for planning, but employers should be prepared for requests at very short notice during the first eight weeks, including on the day an employee is due to start work.
There is also no prescribed form of notice. Employees will therefore be able to notify their employer in a way that is best for them, including for example via WhatsApp or a Teams message.
Evidence
The government has decided that the new statutory right will not have any evidential requirement. The consultation acknowledged the sensitivity of requiring proof, particularly for early pregnancy loss where documentation may be unavailable or delayed.
If employers decide to offer paid bereavement leave, it is open to them to require evidence. However, asking employees to provide evidence of a bereavement or pregnancy loss may be difficult or too intrusive, and employers may prefer to operate these policies on trust, monitoring take-up or perhaps asking employees to sign a declaration form for internal purposes only to certify their eligibility.
To protect against abuse, employers should also ensure that falsifying claims is included within their definition of gross misconduct and consider making any pay discretionary. Like with abuse of sick leave entitlements, employers should follow a disciplinary process if there appears to be justification to do so.
What next?
The government has confirmed that it will publish guidance next year, with calls for this to cover the interplay between sick leave/pay and bereavement leave and to help ensure that both employers and employees understand their rights and responsibilities.
The new right is due to come into force from April 2027 so employers have plenty of time to get ready whilst awaiting the official guidance. Steps to consider include:
- Audit existing compassionate and bereavement leave policies against the new statutory eligibility list, particularly where paid leave is currently limited to narrower categories of family members. Many contractual policies cover a narrower range of relationships, which could mean that some employees receive paid leave for a bereavement while others receive only the new unpaid statutory entitlement. Employers should map their existing policy definitions against the new statutory eligibility list and consider whether their contractual provisions should be updated.
- Consider whether to enhance the statutory minimum. The new entitlement is unpaid and so take-up may well be low, and the government has highlighted the significant cost of bereavement-related presenteeism to employers. Employers may therefore want to consider whether their existing benefits provide sufficient support or whether paid or additional leave would be appropriate.
- Review how any existing paid bereavement leave will interact with the new statutory entitlement. In particular, check that existing arrangements provide at least the statutory minimum and that any eligibility criteria meet the requirements of the new statutory scheme.
- Consider how the new right will interact with sickness absence and pay, particularly following pregnancy loss. An employee may also experience physical or mental health effects requiring sickness absence, so policies and manager guidance should make clear how the two entitlements interact. Also, absence that is pregnancy related could engage specific protections under the Equality Act 2010, so employers should ensure that managers understand the distinction between bereavement leave and sickness absence and do not inadvertently disadvantage employees dealing with pregnancy loss.
- Train managers on the full scope of the new entitlement, including the wider range of qualifying relationships, the notice requirements, and the fact that employees cannot be required to provide evidence under the statutory scheme. Managers should also understand the protection against detriment or dismissal when employees exercise the right.
- Consider how to manage short-notice and intermittent leave. The ability to take individual days over a 56-week period, combined with limited notice in the first eight weeks, may create particular challenges for employers where cover is limited. Employers could consider putting in place a simple process for arranging cover at short notice, including identifying alternative sources of cover or escalation points where necessary.
- Employers may want to consider how requests will be recorded and communicated internally, particularly where employees notify their employer at very short notice or through informal channels such as Teams or WhatsApp.
