Compassionate Leave and Bereavement Leave UK: What the Law Actually Requires

There is no general statutory right to compassionate leave or bereavement leave in the United Kingdom today. What exists instead is a narrower set of specific statutory rights, an employer's own discretionary compassionate leave policy, and a new general bereavement leave that Parliament has enacted but not yet brought into force.

The documented negative: compassionate leave is not a statutory right

Gov.uk's own guidance on time off for dependants describes compassionate leave as something an employer "may allow," paid or unpaid at that employer's discretion, for emergency situations (gov.uk: time off for dependants). A separate government factsheet on the Employment Rights Act 2025 states the underlying position directly: there is currently no statutory right for employees to take bereavement leave following a death, other than parental bereavement leave for parents who lose a child under 18 or experience a stillbirth from 24 weeks of pregnancy.

So an employer that offers a week of paid compassionate leave on the death of a parent, sibling or friend is doing so as a matter of contract or company policy, not because the law requires it. Check your contract, staff handbook or ask HR directly, because there is no statutory minimum to fall back on outside the specific rights below.

What does exist: time off for dependants

Section 57A of the Employment Rights Act 1996 gives every employee, from their first day, the right to take a reasonable amount of unpaid time off to deal with an emergency involving a dependant. For a death, a dependant means a spouse or civil partner, child, parent, or someone who lived in the same household (other than as a tenant, lodger, boarder or employee) (legislation.gov.uk: ERA 1996 s.57A); for illness or a breakdown in care it also covers anyone who reasonably relies on the employee. This covers dealing with a death, among other emergencies such as a dependant falling ill or a breakdown in childcare arrangements.

There is no statutory figure for how many days this covers. It is deliberately open ended, a reasonable amount of time to deal with the immediate emergency, not an ongoing period of leave. It does not cover a situation the employee already knew about in advance. Your employer may choose to pay you for this time, but is not required to.

Statutory Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay

The only bereavement specific leave that is currently a firm statutory right in Great Britain and Northern Ireland is Parental Bereavement Leave, under the Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act 2018 in England, Wales and Scotland, for deaths on or after 6 April 2020 (legislation.gov.uk: Parental Bereavement Leave Regulations 2020).

• Who it covers: the death of a child under 18, or a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy.
• Leave: at least 2 weeks, as a day one right with no length of service requirement. It can be taken as one 2 week block, as two separate 1 week blocks, or as a single week, and must be completed within 56 weeks of the death or stillbirth.
• Pay: Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay is £194.32 a week, or 90 percent of average weekly earnings if that is lower, on top of at least 26 weeks of continuous employment and average earnings of at least the lower earnings limit (in Great Britain; Northern Ireland dropped the 26 week condition from 6 April 2026, see below) (gov.uk: Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay, what you are entitled to).

This is a narrow right by design. It answers the loss of a child, not the loss of a partner, parent or sibling, which is exactly the gap the new general bereavement leave right below is meant to close.

Coming, but not yet in force: general Bereavement Leave under the Employment Rights Act 2025

Section 18 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 widens the existing parental bereavement leave section of the Employment Rights Act 1996 into a general bereavement leave right, so that it can cover other deaths and pregnancy loss before 24 weeks. Confirmed directly from the Act's own text: "where an employee is entitled to leave under this section otherwise than in respect of the death of a child, the employee is entitled to at least one week's leave" (legislation.gov.uk: Employment Rights Act 2025, section 18). The Act itself brings pregnancy loss before 24 weeks within the scope of the right, but leaves the eligible relationships, the kinds of pregnancy loss covered and the timing rules to later regulations, and sets only that one week floor directly for leave other than for the death of a child.

As of 28 September 2026, only the rule making power subsections of section 18 are in force, from 6 January 2026. The substantive leave entitlement itself, the part a reader could actually rely on, has no commencement date in a made regulation. On 22 September 2026 the government confirmed its plan: regulations to be made in 2027 will give up to two weeks of unpaid leave, taken within 56 weeks, for the death of a spouse or partner, parent, adult child or sibling (including step, half, adoptive, kinship and foster relationships) and for pregnancy loss before 24 weeks, from April 2027 (gov.uk: new rights for family bereavement and pregnancy loss). Until those regulations are made, none of this is yet in force.

Northern Ireland: its own Act, and now ahead on miscarriage

Northern Ireland does not simply inherit the 2018 Act. It runs its own Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022, enacted 21 March 2022 (legislation.gov.uk: Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022).

From 6 April 2026, Northern Ireland extended that Act's leave and pay scheme to cover miscarriage, under the Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay (Miscarriage) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026, which apply "in relation to miscarriages experienced or detected on or after 6th April 2026" (legislation.gov.uk: Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay (Miscarriage) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026). Miscarriage is defined to include a spontaneous loss of pregnancy before 24 weeks of gestation, and a loss because of a medical intervention necessary to protect the woman's physical or mental health or to address a fatal or severe fetal abnormality, and eligibility extends to a partner or intended parent, not only the woman herself.

These 2026 regulations extend who can claim, grafting miscarriage into the existing leave and pay framework rather than setting a separate, longer week count for miscarriage specifically. Separately, from 6 April 2026 Northern Ireland also removed the 26 week continuous employment condition for Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay, making the pay a day one right as well as the leave; an employee there still needs average earnings of at least £129 a week (legislation.gov.uk: S.R. 2026 No. 74; nidirect: parental bereavement leave and pay, bereavements on or after 6 April 2026). Great Britain currently has no equivalent miscarriage specific leave right outside the 24 week stillbirth threshold in the 2018 Act, so this is a genuine, dated difference between the two nations, one that will only narrow once Great Britain's own general Bereavement Leave right in section 18 above is actually brought into force.

For dismissal or disciplinary issues connected to taking any of the leave described here, see unfair dismissal and the UK employment law hub.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is compassionate leave a legal right in the UK?

No. There is no general statutory right to compassionate leave. Gov.uk states there is currently no statutory right to bereavement leave following a death, except for parents who lose a child under 18 or experience a stillbirth from 24 weeks. Any wider compassionate leave is at your employer's discretion, under their own policy.

How much bereavement leave am I entitled to if my child dies?

Statutory Parental Bereavement Leave gives at least 2 weeks off, as a day one right with no length of service requirement, for the death of a child under 18 or a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy. It must be taken within 56 weeks of the death or stillbirth.

How much is Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay?

£194.32 a week or 90 percent of your average weekly earnings, whichever is lower. In Great Britain you need at least 26 weeks of continuous employment and average earnings of at least £129 a week; in Northern Ireland, for bereavements on or after 6 April 2026, only the earnings condition applies.

Can I take time off work if a close relative dies but is not my child?

Section 57A of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (Article 85A of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 in Northern Ireland) gives every employee a day one right to a reasonable, unpaid amount of time off to deal with an emergency involving a dependant, which can cover a death. There is no fixed number of days, and your employer decides whether to pay you for it. Beyond that, any further bereavement or compassionate leave depends on your employer's own policy, unless the new general Bereavement Leave right described above has been brought into force by the time you read this.

Is there a new general bereavement leave right coming?

Yes. Section 18 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 widens Parental Bereavement Leave into a general bereavement leave right, with a floor of at least one week for deaths other than a child's. As of 28 September 2026 the substantive right has no commencement date set in a made regulation, so it is not yet something you can rely on. The government has announced it intends the right to start in April 2027 with up to two weeks of unpaid leave; check gov.uk for the regulations before relying on it.

Is Northern Ireland's bereavement leave the same as the rest of the UK?

No. Northern Ireland runs its own Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022, separate from the 2018 Act that applies in England, Wales and Scotland. From 6 April 2026, Northern Ireland extended its scheme to cover miscarriage, which Great Britain does not currently match outside the 24 week stillbirth threshold, and made Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay a day one right for bereavements on or after that date.