The Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act 2024 came into force on 29 December 2025, giving the Government power to make regulations about paternity leave entitlements where the primary carer of the child dies within the first 52 weeks following birth.
These regulations have now been made, meaning that these new rights will apply to such bereavements taking place after 6 April 2026.
What is the current position?
Where the primary carer (usually anticipated in law to be the mother or co-adopter) of a child dies within the first year following birth, the bereaved partner may have the right to take leave such as:
- Paternity leave and pay: 2 weeks’ statutory paternity leave, to be taken either as a single period or two separate weeks, and statutory paternity pay.
- Shared parental leave and pay: Ability for parents to share the mother (or primary adopter)’s entitlement to 50 weeks’ maternity leave, with statutory shared parental pay.
- Parental leave: 18 weeks’ unpaid leave to be taken before the child’s 18th birthday.
- Bereavement leave: 2 weeks’ leave following the death of a child or a stillbirth with statutory parental bereavement pay.
- Dependants Leave: Right to take ‘reasonable’ unpaid time off to help a dependant (including a child or partner) with an emergency.
Each of these rights have strict eligibility criteria, and in many cases are unpaid. Crucially, unless the partner is eligible for shared parental leave, none of these options would allow for a prolonged absence from work in an equivalent sense to the primary carer’s maternity leave.
What is changing?
Under the Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act 2024 (the Act), employed bereaved partners will now benefit from new rights allowing them to take a single period of leave lasting up to 52 weeks after the birth of the child (or adoption placement). There is no minimum service period required, making this a ‘Day One’ right.
In order to be eligible, the child’s primary carer must have died within 52 weeks of the birth or adoption placement, and the partner must have the necessary relationship to the primary carer. Broadly this means that they must be the father of the child, or the spouse, civil partner or partner of the primary carer. Equivalent provisions apply for parental order cases.
The leave can be started immediately within eight weeks of the bereavement, or with a week’s notice at a later date. The partner will also benefit for up to 10 keeping-in-touch (KIT) days, and they and their employer can make reasonable contact with each other during the leave.
There is no statutory right to be paid, but statutory paternity pay is likely to apply for up to two weeks (provided that this has not already been taken). Employees who are eligible for shared parental leave may therefore prefer to take that route, due to the statutory pay potentially on offer.
During the period of leave and on their return, the partner will benefit from protections similar to those applicable on other types of longer periods of family leave, including:
- preservation of all terms and conditions during the leave (except for pay);
- a right to return to the same job on no less favourable terms and conditions;
- a right to be offered a suitable alternative in redundancy situations for up to 18 months after the birth or adoption placement; and
- protection from detriment and automatic unfair dismissal.
What does this mean for employers?
Employers will need to update their policies to ensure that, from 6 April 2026, their managers and HR teams are prepared to deal with situations of bereaved partners in the workplace. This could either be as a standalone policy or as part of any existing family leave policies. Those dealing with relevant requests should receive training in order to communicate sensitively and with full understanding of the types of leave available.
Employers will also need to consider whether they wish to offer any enhanced packages, such as making the leave paid in a similar way to maternity leave, or otherwise extending pay beyond the other statutory entitlements that may apply.
BDBF is a leading employment law firm based at Bank in the City of London. If you would like to discuss any issues relating to the content of this article, please contact Rose Lim (RoseLim@bdbf.co.uk), Amanda Steadman (AmandaSteadman@bdbf.co.uk) or your us ual BDBF contact
