Paternity Leave Bereavement Act
Paternity Leave Bereavement Act Will Include Parents of Babies, Adoption of Children and Surrogacy Arrangements
The Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act provides new rights to leave and pay to bereaved fathers and partners who lose the child’s mother during or shortly after childbirth. Bereaved parents of adopted children and children born through a surrogacy arrangement will also be covered. Commencement regulations were made on 15 December 2025 bringing the Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act 2024 into force with effect from 29 December 2025.
Why Was The Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act Proposed?
The Bill received Royal Assent on 24 May 2024 and became an Act of Parliament. Commencement regulations were made on 15 December 2025 bringing the Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act 2024 into force with effect from 29 December 2025.
Updates
This page was first published on 19 April 2024, the latest update was on 5 January 2026.
Originally, the Bill proposed that bereaved fathers or other working partners receive immediate access to Shared Parental Leave (SPL) and pay from the first day of employment, i.e. leave and pay would be “day-one” rights. This was to eliminate the current requirements of 26 weeks of employment and three months’ notice. The Bill was aimed at providing immediate support to fathers or partners who lose the child’s mother during or shortly after childbirth, ensuring they are not disadvantaged by the existing continuous employment criteria. On 20 March 2024, the Shared Parental Leave and Pay (Bereavement) Bill was substantially amended and renamed to the Paternity Leave Bereavement Bill.
What Rights Do Qualifying Employees Benefit From?
The Act:
- Scraps the minimum service requirement for bereaved partners in cases where the mother of a newborn child has died. Bereaved parents of adopted children and children born through a surrogacy arrangement are also be covered. This means that paternity leave will become a ‘day one’ right for bereaved partners.
- Removes the condition preventing bereaved partners who have already taken shared parental leave from taking paternity leave.
Note these changes will be made for all fathers/partners under the Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA 2025) in due course, planned for April 2026. The impact of these changes will therefore be limited, but employers may want to amend relevant policies or at least ensure relevant managers are aware of the changes (prior to making amendments to reflect the ERA 2025).
What Other Changes Are Expected?
Further changes to rights for bereaved fathers/partners are expected that include:
- Increasing paternity leave for bereaved fathers/partners from two weeks to 52 weeks.
- Extending the entitlement to cover the death of the child, currently the purpose of taking leave is to care for the child or support the mother.
- Allow a bereaved partner to take ‘keeping-in-touch days’ – commonly known as KIT days – without bringing their period of leave to an end.
- Allow bereaved fathers/partners to benefit from enhanced redundancy protection.
The government is also expected to regulate to increase the period of leave available in such circumstances from the usual two weeks to 52 weeks.
The law on statutory paternity leave and pay changed on 6 April 2024 as a result of the Paternity Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024 coming into effect earlier in March 2024.
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