The Employment Rights Bill – Consultation on leave for bereavement including pregnancy loss

The current law

Employees currently have a day-one right to parental bereavement leave, which applies to parents (defined broadly) who experience the death of a child under 18, including a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy.

The leave is two weeks in length and can be taken in two separate weeks or as one continuous block. It must be taken within 56 weeks of the death or stillbirth of the child.

For employees with six months’ continuous service and weekly earnings above the lower earnings limit, parental bereavement leave is paid at the same rate as statutory paternity pay or shared parental pay.

What’s changing under the ERB?

In addition to parental bereavement leave, the ERB will introduce a separate day-one right to unpaid bereavement leave for employees who experience the loss of a loved one, including pregnancy loss before 24 weeks. The purpose of the consultation is to consider:

• Who will be eligible for the leave (both for loss of a loved one and in cases of pregnancy loss)
• How and when it can be taken
• Notice and evidence requirements

Eligibility – loss of a loved one

Wide consideration is being given to determining which relationships between the employee and the deceased person should be eligible.

These include immediate family, grandparents and grandchildren, and extended family members. Another option for people responding to the consultation to consider is: “Title doesn’t matter, it should be based on the importance that person played in their life (for example, foster carers or “chosen family” including close friends, kinship caregivers)”. This reflects the Government’s intention that the law should reflect the “diverse and evolving” family structures in Britain.

Eligibility – pregnancy loss

The consultation asks for views about whether bereavement leave for pregnancy loss should be restricted to the person who has physically experienced the pregnancy loss. If respondents answer ‘no’, they are invited to submit their thoughts about which other individuals should be eligible to take the leave.

We anticipate that the responses to this question will largely indicate that others impacted by pregnancy loss, albeit not physically, should also be eligible to take leave.

It is proposed that the following types of pregnancy loss will be covered for the purposes of the new leave, and the Government welcomes views about whether any other forms of pregnancy loss should be included:

• Miscarriage
• Ectopic pregnancy
• Molar pregnancy
• Medical terminations under the Abortion Act 1967
• IVF embryo transfer loss

How and when the leave can be taken

The ERB provides that bereavement leave will be a minimum of one week, and employees should be allowed 56 days from the loss to take the leave. However, this could be enhanced using secondary legislation. This part of the consultation considers the practicalities, including:

• Whether the leave should be one week, two weeks or longer
• If employees should be offered different lengths of leave depending on the type of loss suffered
• When the ‘trigger’ for taking the leave should be, because the date of knowledge might be different to the date of death
• How much flexibility should be allowed, for example, should the leave be taken in one continuous block, or could it be split?
• Whether the window of 56 days to take the leave is appropriate, or whether 52 weeks, 56 weeks (to mirror the current parental bereavement leave position) or something else would be more suitable

Notice and evidence requirements

The Government acknowledges that flexibility is important, as bereavements are often unexpected and emotionally challenging experiences.

The consultation therefore seeks views from respondents on whether employees should be required to provide notice that they intend to take bereavement leave, and if so, how much notice should be required. The consultation differentiates between leave that is to be taken very soon after the bereavement, compared to leave taken later, in a similar way to the current parental bereavement leave rules.

In terms of evidence that may be required, the Government is considering the most appropriate approach for bereaved employees and whether the obligations should be different in cases of pregnancy loss. Questions are posed about the type of evidence that may be required and, if so, when employees should provide it.

Next steps

The consultation will close on 15 January 2026, and the bereavement leave provisions are expected to be implemented in 2027.