Employers will need to update leave policies and HR processes before April 2027 after the government confirmed a new statutory right to bereavement leave covering a wider range of family relationships and pregnancy loss.
The changes will give employees a legal right to take bereavement leave after the death of a spouse or partner, parent, adult child, or sibling. Step, half, adoptive, kinship-care, and foster relationships will also be included, extending protection beyond the circumstances covered by existing statutory rights.
A separate provision will give women and their partners up to two weeks of unpaid leave after a pregnancy loss before 24 weeks. The definition includes miscarriage, termination, and unsuccessful IVF embryo transfer, and the entitlement will also extend to the other biological parent and intended parents in a surrogacy arrangement.
The measures are due to take effect in April 2027 through secondary legislation. They build on existing parental bereavement leave, which applies where a child under 18 dies or where a stillbirth occurs after 24 weeks of pregnancy.
The new bereavement entitlement will be a day-one employment right. Leave can be taken flexibly during the 56 weeks following a loss, including as individual days rather than one continuous block. Where leave is taken in the first eight weeks, employees will only need to notify their employer as soon as reasonably practicable rather than giving advance notice.
Employees will not be required to provide evidence of the bereavement. Those exercising the statutory entitlement will also receive protection against detriment or dismissal connected with taking the leave.
Matthew Percival, the CBI’s future of work and skills director, said the change “recognises the importance of giving employees time and space during some of life’s most difficult moments”.
Many organisations already provide compassionate or bereavement leave on terms that go beyond statutory minimums. A formal right nevertheless creates a common legal baseline and requires existing policies to be checked against the full set of relationships and circumstances covered by the legislation.
That review extends beyond staff handbooks. HR information systems may need new absence categories, payroll and time-recording processes will need to distinguish statutory unpaid leave from any enhanced paid provision, and line managers will need guidance on notification requirements and employee protections.
The pregnancy-loss provisions create an additional confidentiality consideration because absence may previously have been handled through sickness, compassionate leave, annual leave, or informal arrangements. A specific statutory category gives employees a clearer route to time away from work while increasing the importance of consistent and sensitive handling of personal information.
The government said more than eight in ten employers responding to its consultation supported bereavement leave following the death of an immediate family member, while nine in ten business representative organisations were supportive. Some campaign groups continue to argue that leave following pregnancy loss should be paid rather than unpaid.
The legislation forms part of a wider programme of employment-law changes and comes alongside a broader review of parental leave and pay. HR teams may therefore need to coordinate the implementation with other policy, contract, payroll, and systems changes rather than treat bereavement leave as an isolated amendment.
Organisations with more generous existing arrangements will not necessarily need to replace them. Enhanced policies can continue, provided they meet or exceed the statutory floor, cover the required relationships, preserve the necessary flexibility, and do not impose evidence or notification requirements that conflict with the legislation.
The changes may also bring greater consistency between different managers and locations. Discretionary compassionate-leave policies can produce different outcomes depending on individual managers, whereas a statutory entitlement defines a minimum position regardless of local practice.
Businesses operating across several jurisdictions will still need to distinguish the new UK entitlement from arrangements elsewhere. Multinational policies may offer a common internal standard, but local documentation and payroll processes will need to reflect the statutory rights applying to UK employees.
Implementation is scheduled for April 2027, leaving several months for policy revisions, system configuration, manager training, and decisions over whether paid provision will be offered above the legal minimum. Bereavement leave is moving from an area often determined by employer discretion towards a defined employment right.
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