The passage of the Employment Rights Bill (‘ERB’) has been delayed while the final key aspects of the reform continue to be debated by both Houses during Parliamentary ‘ping pong’. In the meantime, the Government has published a consultation on bereavement leave; a review of employment rights for unpaid carers; and a consultation on enhanced dismissal protections for pregnant women and new mothers.
In this article, we look at the consultation on bereavement leave and review for unpaid carers. Please see here for consideration of the enhanced dismissals protections.
Background
The Government has promised changes to family friendly rights as part of its ‘Plan to Make Work Pay’. We discuss these in more detail on our Reform Hub, but they include:
- Changes being introduced via the ERB: day one paternity and parental leave rights, enhanced dismissal protection for pregnant women and new mothers, and day one rights to unpaid bereavement leave, including for pregnancy loss
- Changes as part of the wider ‘Plan to Make Work Pay’: reviews of the parental leave system (which are underway) and of the new right to carer’s leave to consider it being a paid right
We look at the consultation on bereavement leave and review for unpaid carers below, which start to add more details to the upcoming changes:
Bereavement Leave
The ERB gives the power to introduce a new statutory day one right to unpaid bereavement leave for employees who experience the loss of a loved one. During the ERB’s journey through Parliament this was extended to cover pregnancy loss. The ERB sets minimum requirements for the new leave rights, including:
- A minimum of one week’s leave to be taken during a window of at least 56 days
- Employees entitled to leave will be those who satisfy certain relationship conditions with the person who has died, those who suffer pregnancy loss or who satisfy certain relationship conditions with the person who has suffered pregnancy loss
- Protections for those taking the bereavement leave, including rights against detriment or dismissal
However, the ERB leaves it to regulations to set out the full entitlements.
The Government launched a consultation on 23 October 2025 (applicable to Great Britain) seeking views on practical details of the new rights. The areas covered by the consultation include:
Eligibility Criteria
The Government is inviting feedback on which relationships between the employee and the deceased should qualify for bereavement leave. While the potential inclusion of immediate family members is not unexpected, there is also consideration as to whether the scope should be broadened to encompass grandparents, grandchildren, and extended family members or even whether it should be determined by the importance the deceased person played in the employee’s life.
In relation to pregnancy loss, the Government is examining specific eligibility requirements, including whether the right to leave should be limited to the individual who directly experienced the pregnancy loss, or if it should be extended to others in defined relationships with that individual, such as spouses, partners, or intended coparents. Additionally, the Government aims to clearly define the categories of pregnancy loss that will be recognised for the purposes of bereavement leave, with proposals to include miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, molar pregnancy, certain medical terminations, and loss of an embryo following IVF transfer.
When and How the Bereavement Leave can be Taken
The ERB establishes a statutory minimum of one week’s bereavement leave for eligible employees, but the length is to be determined in regulations. The consultation seeks feedback on whether the minimum entitlement should be set at one week, two weeks, or possibly another duration. Consideration is also given as to whether the length of bereavement leave should differ based on the type of bereavement.
The Government acknowledges that the experience of grief is highly individual, and employees may benefit from greater flexibility for taking leave, so invites views on adopting a flexible approach, such as allowing bereavement leave to be taken in non-consecutive blocks of weeks or days, rather than as a single continuous period.
Further deliberation centres on the timing of bereavement leave. It examines when the entitlement should start and the window within which leave may be taken. This issue is particularly pertinent for pregnancy loss, where the loss may occur prior to the individual or others becoming aware of the pregnancy. The consultation explores options including leave entitlements to begin from the date of death or pregnancy loss or from the date the employee becomes aware of the death or pregnancy loss. The ERB currently stipulates a minimum window of eight weeks (56 days) for the employee to exercise their entitlement to bereavement leave, though consideration is being given to extending this window to 52 or 56 weeks.
Notice and Evidence Requirements
The consultation seeks views as to whether notice is required and if so, when it should be provided (including whether it should be tiered depending on when the leave is taken), and what form the notice should be given. It also considers whether evidence should be required and if so, what sort of evidence should be provided. In considering this, the Government recognises the difficult balance between the need for employers to plan absences and to safeguard against misuse, as well as the sensitive and upsetting circumstances employees face.
In terms of next steps, the consultation closes on 15 January 2026. The right, however, is not due to come into force until 2027 according to the Government’s roadmap (although this could change if the ERB’s passage is further delayed). Employers should watch for developments as the details of this new right are developed following the consultation. However, given it is an unpaid leave entitlement at this stage, it will be interesting to see if there is much uptake on the new right once in force.
Carer’s Leave
The new right to carer’s leave was introduced in April 2024 (see our article written at the time here). It gives employees the right to up to one week’s unpaid carer’s leave in each 12-month rolling period to provide or arrange care for a dependant with a long-term care need.
As part of its ‘Plan to Make Work Pay’, the Government promised to review carer’s leave entitlements and potentially expand the right to being paid, whilst “being mindful of the impact of any changes on small employers”. On 19 November 2025, the Government published terms of reference for this anticipated review to consider whether there is a need to change the current approach to ensure carers and their dependants have the right support in place.
The review aims to:
- Understand how the existing unpaid carer’s leave entitlement is working
- Examine options for different models of paid carer’s leave
- Consider the options and principles for additional interventions which may help unpaid carers enter, remain, and progress in the workplace
- Identify options with low or no cost to business and the exchequer and appropriate routes for implementation
In the course of the review the Government will consider the merits of further policy development, such as the introduction of a paid leave entitlement, a one-off, extended unpaid leave entitlement, a paid leave entitlement for the parents of seriously ill children or other situational paid leave entitlements to support carers in specific circumstances (such as individuals providing end of life care).
The review will be carried out in three phases and is expected to conclude by the end of 2026. This will include the publication of a consultation on employment support for unpaid carers and support for parents of seriously ill children (anticipated some time during winter 2025 to autumn 2026). A final report is anticipated autumn 2026 to winter 2026 to 2027, with a consultation response, findings and an implementation roadmap. Employers should keep track of these developments, although legal changes are not looking likely until 2027 at the earliest based on these timings.
Keep track of developments via our Reform Hub.
