The Government has announced its intentions to use relevant provisions of the Employment Rights Act 2025 to introduce a new legal right to unpaid bereavement leave, covering the loss of a wider range of family members and loved ones than is currently available.
In its response to the consultation “Make Work Pay: leave for bereavement including pregnancy loss” published on 22 September 2026, the Government has said the new entitlement will be introduced through secondary legislation (yet to be created) and is expected to come into force from April next year.
The new right to bereavement leave will apply from the first day of employment. Eligible employees will be able to take up to two weeks’ leave following the death of a spouse, partner, parent, adult child or sibling. The definition will include biological, adopted, step and half relationships, as well as equivalent parental relationships involving people raised in kinship-care arrangements or by foster carers.
The entitlement will also apply to pregnancy loss before 24 weeks. This includes miscarriage, terminations and loss following an IVF embryo transfer. Leave will be available to the person who experienced the pregnancy loss, the other biological parent, partners and intended parents in a surrogacy arrangement.
Employees will not have to take the leave as a single block. It can be taken flexibly, including as individual, discontinuous days, within 56 weeks of the bereavement or pregnancy loss. The leave period will start from the date of death or pregnancy loss, or from the date the employee became aware of it.
Notice arrangements are intended to provide flexibility. Employees can give notice as soon as reasonably practicable. Where leave is taken within the first eight weeks following the bereavement, notice may be given on the same day. After that period, one week’s notice will be required. Notice can be provided in any form, meaning employers cannot insist on a particular process such as a written application or prescribed form.
No evidence will be required to support a request for this statutory leave. Employers will therefore need to ensure that managers understand the entitlement and respond sensitively, without asking employees to provide death certificates, medical records or other proof.
The leave will be unpaid, providing a statutory minimum level of protection rather than a replacement for enhanced contractual or compassionate-leave arrangements. The Government has said the changes are intended to ensure that no employee has to rely solely on an employer’s discretion when dealing with bereavement.
