Compassionate leave is about to become less discretionary in UK workplaces. On Tuesday 22 September 2026, the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade confirmed that new statutory bereavement rights and a separate pregnancy-loss entitlement will start in April 2027, with the detail due to be enacted through secondary legislation next year. For employers, the announcement matters less as a political message than as an implementation deadline. (gov.uk) Large employers may already be close to compliance because many run enhanced compassionate leave policies. The bigger change is for organisations that still handle bereavement on an informal, manager-by-manager basis, where similar cases can produce very different outcomes. (gov.uk)

The family coverage is broader than many existing handbook policies. Ministers said employees who lose a spouse or partner, parent, adult child or sibling will qualify, and the rules will also cover step, half, adoptive, kinship care and foster relationships that have often sat outside formal leave entitlements. (gov.uk) That is a practical change as much as a legal one. HR teams tend to get into difficulty when policy wording assumes a narrow version of family life, then asks line managers to interpret sensitive cases on the spot. A clearer statutory floor should reduce some of that inconsistency, even if many firms choose to offer more generous paid terms on top. (gov.uk)

Pregnancy loss is the other major shift. The government said women and their partners who experience a loss before 24 weeks, including miscarriage, terminations and unsuccessful IVF embryo transfers, will be entitled to up to two weeks' unpaid leave from April 2027. The right will also apply to the other biological parent and to intended parents in a surrogacy arrangement. (gov.uk) For workplaces, that closes a gap which has sat awkwardly between wellbeing language and legal rights. The department said there is currently no statutory bereavement leave in these circumstances, despite an estimate that one in five women in the UK experience miscarriage during their lifetime. In policy terms, that makes the reform less a fringe adjustment and more a recognition of a common life event that employers have been handling unevenly. (gov.uk)

The government's response suggests a design that should be manageable in practice. The entitlement will sit as a day-one right, can be taken flexibly within 56 weeks of the loss, and may be used as single days rather than only as a full block. If leave is taken within the first eight weeks after a bereavement, employees will only need to notify their employer as soon as reasonably practicable, rather than giving notice in advance. (gov.uk) Just as important, staff will not be asked to produce evidence of their loss, and they will be protected from detriment or dismissal for using the leave. That should steer employers away from a paperwork-first approach and towards manager guidance that is simple, humane and consistent. (gov.uk)

Employers do not appear to be pushing back against the principle. Government figures show more than eight in ten employers and nine in ten business representative organisations supported bereavement leave following the death of an immediate family member. The CBI said many businesses already offer compassionate leave and wants the final guidance to work in practice for employers, workers and unions alike. (gov.uk) For SMEs, the operational task is fairly clear. Absence policies will need revising, HR systems must be able to record leave flexibly, and line managers will need enough training to handle conversations well without turning them into process exercises. Firms that already offer paid compassionate leave may find the law changes very little day to day; those relying on discretion will have more work to do. (gov.uk)

Campaigners broadly welcomed the move, while signalling that the argument over support at work is not finished. Miscarriage UK said the new legal minimum is a meaningful step and welcomed the inclusion of partners, but it continues to argue that bereavement leave linked to pregnancy loss should eventually be paid. That creates a familiar dividing line between statutory compliance and best practice. (gov.uk) Ministers are framing the reform as part of the wider Make Work Pay agenda, and it builds on the existing parental bereavement entitlement for parents who experience a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy or the death of a child under 18. The government is also reviewing the broader parental leave and pay system, including Hugh's Law and rights for parents of terminally ill children. For employers, the sensible reading is that this is not a one-off change but another step in a longer reshaping of family-related workplace rights. (gov.uk)