Bereavement Leave and Pregnancy Loss Before 24 Weeks

The Employment Rights Act 2025 creates the first general statutory right to bereavement leave in Great Britain. Section 18 of the Act gives employees a day-one right to unpaid time off to grieve the death of a loved one, with a minimum of one week's leave.

During the bill's passage, the government extended the measure to cover pregnancy loss before 24 weeks. For the first time, employees affected by miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy or a failed embryo transfer during IVF will have a statutory right to bereavement leave, and the framework allows partners to qualify too.

A consultation on the detail closed on 15 January 2026. As of July 2026 the government response has not been published, and the new entitlement is expected to take effect in 2027.

This guide explains what the Act says, what remains to be set in regulations, and what employers should build into handbooks and absence policies before commencement.

Primary sources: section 18 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 on legislation.gov.uk, the GOV.UK consultation on leave for bereavement including pregnancy loss, and the government announcement of the pregnancy loss extension (7 July 2025).

Why This Matters

At present there is no general statutory right to bereavement leave. Most employers handle bereavement through discretionary compassionate leave, and the government's factsheet cites estimates that nearly two million working people suffer intense grief each year.

The pregnancy loss extension is significant in its own right. The government's announcement cited around 250,000 miscarriages and 12,000 ectopic pregnancies in the UK each year, and until now statutory bereavement rights have only applied from 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Because the new right is a day-one entitlement with dismissal and redundancy protection attached, handbook and absence policy wording will need to be accurate from the moment the regulations commence. Employers that prepare during 2026 avoid rushed redrafting when the 2027 commencement date is confirmed.

1. The Current Position: Parental Bereavement Leave Only

The only standalone statutory bereavement leave today is parental bereavement leave, often called Jack's Law, in force since April 2020. It gives employed parents 2 weeks of leave following the death of a child under 18 or a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy.

The leave can be taken as one two-week block or as two separate weeks, within 56 weeks of the death. There is no minimum service requirement for the leave itself, but Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay requires 26 weeks of service and minimum earnings, and is paid at £194.32 per week from 6 April 2026 (or 90 per cent of average weekly earnings if lower).

Beyond that, employees have a right to reasonable unpaid time off for dependants under section 57A of the Employment Rights Act 1996, which covers making arrangements after a dependant's death. As Acas guidance confirms, there is no wider legal right to bereavement leave, and no statutory leave at all for pregnancy loss before 24 weeks.

2. The New Day-One Right to Bereavement Leave

Section 18 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 amends the Employment Rights Act 1996, renaming the Chapter 4 entitlement from "parental bereavement leave" to "bereavement leave" and reworking section 80EA. Employees will qualify as "bereaved persons" where they meet relationship conditions with the person who has died, to be specified in regulations.

The Act sets minimum standards that regulations cannot undercut. Leave must be at least one week for a bereavement other than the death of a child, the existing two weeks for the death of a child continues, and the bereaved employee must have at least 56 days in which to take the leave. The consultation asked whether both minimums should be extended.

The right applies from the first day of employment, and the government's factsheet confirms it carries protection around redundancy and dismissal. It sets a statutory floor beneath the discretionary compassionate leave arrangements most employers operate today.

3. The Pregnancy Loss Extension and Who It Covers

The government announced on 7 July 2025 that the bill would be amended to cover pregnancy loss before 24 weeks. The Act now defines pregnancy loss as "the ending of a pregnancy after less than twenty-four weeks of pregnancy in any way other than by a live birth", or "the failure of an embryo to become implanted following a transfer carried out in the course of providing treatment services".

That definition captures miscarriage and ectopic pregnancy, both named in the government's announcement, and expressly includes failed embryo transfer during IVF. Regulations will specify which kinds of pregnancy loss qualify, and the consultation asked detailed questions about scope.

Partners are within the framework. New section 80EA(3A) of the 1996 Act covers an employee who has suffered a pregnancy loss and an employee who has a specified relationship with the person who suffered the loss, or with a child who had been expected to be born. The announcement described the right as covering everyone affected by pregnancy loss, with the precise relationships left to regulations.

4. Paid or Unpaid, and What Regulations Will Set

The new bereavement leave is unpaid. The government's factsheet is explicit that the Act deals with leave only, and that offering pay or a longer entitlement is at the employer's discretion, as many already do. This differs from parental bereavement leave, which carries statutory pay for eligible employees.

Regulations will settle the working detail: which relationships to the deceased qualify, which kinds of pregnancy loss are in scope, the final length of leave, the window for taking it, how it can be split, and what notice and evidence an employee can be asked for. The consultation covered all of these, in three parts: eligibility, flexibility and timing, and notice and evidence requirements.

Until the government response and draft regulations appear, employers should treat the one-week unpaid minimum, the day-one qualification and the 56-day minimum window as the baseline for planning.

5. Timing: Consultation Closed, Response Awaited, 2027 Expected

The consultation ran from 23 October 2025 to 15 January 2026. As of July 2026, the GOV.UK consultation page still states that the government is analysing feedback, and no response has been published.

The Department for Business and Trade's factsheet lists extended bereavement leave, including pregnancy loss, for expected commencement in 2027. The regulation-making powers in section 18 were switched on in January 2026 by the Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 1) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/3), so the government can make the regulations once its response is settled.

Employers should expect the government response first, then draft regulations, then a commencement date. A named owner in HR should watch for the response, because policy wording and payroll decisions will follow from it.

6. What Handbooks and Absence Policies Need to Say

Most handbooks currently deal with bereavement through a short compassionate leave clause, usually discretionary and often limited to immediate family. Once the regulations commence, any wording that offers less than the statutory entitlement will be out of date and misleading.

Policies should name pregnancy loss expressly rather than leaving it to be inferred from general bereavement wording. They should cover partners as well as the person who was pregnant, keep evidence expectations light, and make clear who the employee should tell and how the absence will be recorded confidentially.

Manager guidance matters as much as the policy text. Managers need to know not to ask for proof of a pregnancy or its loss, how to record the absence without broadcasting the reason, and how the new leave sits alongside parental bereavement leave, sick leave and time off for dependants.

Bereavement Leave Changes at a Glance

What Employers Should Do Before Commencement

1. Audit your current bereavement provision. Pull together every clause that touches bereavement: compassionate leave, special leave, absence and sickness policies. Note what is offered, to whom, and whether it is paid.
2. Compare it against the statutory floor. Check your provision against at least one week of leave, from day one, covering pregnancy loss before 24 weeks and available within a window of at least 56 days.
3. Decide your position on pay. The statutory minimum is unpaid. Decide now whether you will pay some or all of the leave, and cost that decision before the regulations force the question.
4. Draft handbook wording with placeholders. Prepare the policy text now and mark the points the regulations will fix, such as qualifying relationships and evidence rules, so the final update is a fill-in exercise rather than a rewrite.
5. Prepare manager guidance. Cover privacy, sensitive conversations, what not to ask, and how to record the absence. Poor first conversations cause more damage than policy gaps.
6. Assign someone to track the government response. The consultation outcome will confirm scope, notice and evidence rules. Give a named person responsibility for monitoring GOV.UK and triggering the policy update.
7. Align related policies. Check that parental bereavement leave, sickness absence, time off for dependants and any fertility or baby loss support wording point to each other consistently.

Common Errors to Avoid

• Stating the new right as if it were already in force. The entitlement is expected in 2027 and the regulations are not yet made. A handbook that promises the statutory right today misstates the law and creates a contractual commitment you may not have intended.
• Assuming the leave will be paid. The Act provides unpaid leave only. Budgeting or communicating on the basis of statutory pay will need correcting later, which is harder than getting it right first time.
• Confusing the new right with parental bereavement leave. A stillbirth after 24 weeks triggers 2 weeks of parental bereavement leave with statutory pay for eligible employees. A loss before 24 weeks will fall under the new unpaid entitlement. Applying the wrong one shortchanges the employee or the business.
• Demanding medical evidence of pregnancy loss. Evidence requirements will be set in regulations and the consultation weighed them carefully. Intrusive requests in the meantime invite grievances and, where they bear on pregnancy or sex, discrimination complaints.
• Writing the policy only for the person who was pregnant. The Act's framework extends to partners through specified relationships. A policy that ignores them will be out of step with the regulations and with employee expectations.

How Policy Pros Can Help

We draft and update leave policies for UK employers, including compassionate and bereavement leave clauses that are ready for the Employment Rights Act 2025 changes. We write the wording so that the statutory minimums slot in cleanly once the regulations are made, without a full redraft.

Bereavement leave does not sit alone. We keep it consistent with your maternity, paternity, adoption and parental leave policies, and with the wider family leave changes already in force, covered in our day-one family leave April 2026 guide and our neonatal care leave guide.

If your handbook still handles bereavement in a single discretionary sentence, now is a sensible time to fix that. Contact us for a review of your absence and leave documents ahead of the 2027 commencement.