A New Day-One Right to Bereavement Leave: What Employers Need to Know

The Government has published and announced its response to the consultation on a new day-one right to bereavement leave, one of the entitlements introduced by the Employment Rights Act 2025. Following over 1,900 consultation responses, the final details of the new right have now been confirmed and while implementation isn't due until April 2027, employers have plenty to start thinking about now.

How This Differs From Existing Parental Bereavement Leave

The new entitlement sits alongside, rather than replaces, the existing right to parental bereavement leave. That existing entitlement is narrow: it's limited to parents who lose a child under 18, or experience a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy and it provides up to two weeks of paid leave.

The new right is deliberately much broader in scope, covering a far wider range of relationships and extending to pregnancy loss before 24 weeks. However, unlike parental bereavement leave, the new entitlement will be unpaid.

Who Is Covered

Eligibility for the new right extends to the loss of immediate family members, including spouses, civil partners, partners in a committed long-term relationship, parents, adult children, and siblings, whether biological, adopted, step or half-siblings. It also covers equivalent parental relationships for those raised in kinship or foster care arrangements, recognising that "immediate family" doesn't always follow a strictly biological definition.

For pregnancy loss specifically, the right will be available to the person who was pregnant, the other biological parent, a spouse, civil partner or partner, an intended co-parent and intended parents in a surrogacy arrangement.

Pregnancy Loss Before 24 Weeks

This is arguably the most significant expansion. All types of pregnancy loss before 24 weeks will now be covered, including miscarriage, ectopic, molar and chemical pregnancies, all terminations, and loss following IVF embryo transfer. Until now, pregnancy loss before 24 weeks has fallen outside the UK's statutory bereavement leave framework entirely, leaving many employees reliant on sick leave, annual leave or their employer's goodwill.

Duration, Notice and Evidence

Employees will be entitled to up to two weeks of leave, based on their working pattern, and this can be taken as discontinuous single days within 56 weeks of the bereavement, rather than needing to be used all at once. Notice requirements are deliberately light-touch: notice can be given as soon as reasonably practicable, meaning the same day within the first eight weeks following the bereavement and one week's notice after that point. Significantly, there will be no evidence requirements for this entitlement at all, reflecting the sensitive and often difficult-to-document nature of bereavement.

When Does This Take Effect?

The new right will be implemented through secondary legislation, with measures expected to come into force in April 2027. The Government has also confirmed it will publish further guidance for both employers and employees ahead of implementation.

What Employers Should Do Now

Start reviewing your existing bereavement and compassionate leave policies. Many employers already offer some form of discretionary bereavement leave, but few will currently cover the full scope of relationships and pregnancy loss situations the new right requires.

Think about how the "same day" notice requirement will work in practice. With no evidence requirements and very short notice periods, managers will need clear guidance on how to respond sensitively and consistently when a request comes in.

Train line managers now, not in 2027. Bereavement conversations are difficult even with clear policies in place. Managers will need confidence and clarity around eligibility, especially for less obvious relationships like step-siblings or kinship carers, well before the right becomes law.

Watch for the Government guidance. The broad shape of the right is now confirmed, but the fine detail will follow in regulations and guidance, which employers should factor into policy updates as they're published.

Impact

This is a genuinely welcome, and overdue, expansion of statutory bereavement support, but it also introduces real practical complexity for employers, particularly around eligibility and same-day notice. We help employers update family leave and bereavement policies, train managers to handle these conversations sensitively and consistently, and get ahead of Employment Rights Act changes like this one before they arrive.

Contact Oliver Tasker: 📞 Call: 01522 776270 ✉️ Email: oliver@impactemploymentlaw.co.uk

Advice. Protection. Impact.

Read the full Government response here: gov.uk - Make Work Pay: Leave for bereavement, including pregnancy loss