Government responds to consultation on bereavement leave

New right to bereavement leave

The ERA 2025 will introduce a new day one statutory right to bereavement leave on the death of a close relative or pregnancy loss before 24 weeks (including IVF embryo transfer loss). This will sit alongside the current day one right to two weeks' paid parental bereavement leave on the death of a child under the age of 18 or the loss of a pregnancy after 24 weeks.

The government consulted on details including eligibility, the duration and timeframe within which leave should be taken, notice and evidential requirements between 23 October 2025 and 15 January 2026. In its response to the consultation, which was published on 22 September 2026, the government has confirmed that it will make regulations setting out the following details:

Eligibility

• In cases of pregnancy loss before 24 weeks, leave will be available to the person who experienced the pregnancy loss, the other biological parent, spouses, civil partners, partners, intended co-parents, and intended parents in a surrogacy arrangement. All types of pregnancy loss before 24 weeks will be covered, including all miscarriages, terminations, and IVF embryo transfer loss. (The consultation response notes that other types of loss, such as IVF embryo loss pre-transfer, and other failed fertilisation treatments, cannot be included because they do not fall within the scope of the ERA 2025 itself.)
• In other cases, leave will be available to employees who experience a bereavement of their spouse, civil partner, partner (cohabiting and non-cohabiting), parents, adult children, siblings (biological, adopted, step and half), and equivalent parental relationships for those raised in kinship arrangements or by foster carers. Notably, grandparents and grandchildren are not included on this list.

Duration and timing of leave

• Employees will be able to take up to two weeks of leave, pro-rated to their usual working pattern. For example, an employee who works Monday to Friday would be entitled to 10 working days of leave, whereas an employee who works Tuesday and Wednesday only would be entitled to four working days of leave.
• Leave may be taken as discontinuous single days, over a period of up to 56 weeks from the date of the death or pregnancy loss itself, or date of knowledge of the death or pregnancy loss if later. The 56 week window was selected because it aligns with the timeframe for taking parental bereavement leave, and allows employees to take leave on important dates such as the first anniversary of the death.

Notice and evidential requirements

• For leave taken within the first eight weeks of the bereavement, notice should be given before the employee is due to start work on the day they wish to take leave, or as soon as reasonably practicable.
• For leave taken more than eight weeks after the bereavement, one week's notice will be required.
• In both cases, any form of notice will be acceptable (written or oral), and employees will not be required to provide evidence of their entitlement to bereavement leave.

Timing of implementation

• The government has committed to publishing draft regulations and further guidance in the coming months, with a view to bringing the right into force from April 2027.

What does this mean for employers?

The headline right proposed in the ERA 2025 was for a minimum entitlement of one week's leave, whereas the consultation response has doubled this to two weeks' entitlement. In addition, the fact that employees can take their leave as single days, and can give notice on the same day for leave taken within eight weeks of the bereavement will mean a level of administrative burden, and employers will need to put systems in place to minimise operational disruption. That said, since this new right to statutory bereavement leave will be unpaid, its introduction is still likely to have only limited impact on employers.

It is worth noting that the consultation response emphasises that the new statutory right is intended as a minimum standard, and encourages employers to go beyond this where appropriate. Many employers may already do so, e.g. by providing paid compassionate leave, longer periods of leave, or allowing leave for bereavements that would not be covered by the statutory right.