Family leave provisions

Employees need to have been employed for one year before becoming eligible for parental leave. Parental leave is unpaid and eligible employees are entitled to 18 weeks’ leave for each child and adopted child up to their 18^th birthday.

The ERA gives the Government powers to introduce regulations which will remove this length of service requirement so that employees will be entitled to parental leave from day one.

This change took effect on 6 April 2026.

Fact sheet outlining the Government’s intention with this provision.

Employees with 26 weeks’ continuous service 15 weeks before the expected week of childbirth are entitled to two weeks’ paid paternity leave at any time within the first year of the baby being born.

The ERA will remove the qualifying period so employees will be entitled to paternity leave from day one of their employment. The current rules regard entitlement to paternity pay will remain the same.

This change took effect on 6 April 2026.

Fact sheet outlining the Government’s intention with this provision.

Fathers are restricted from taking paid paternity leave following a period of shared parentally leave and pay.

The ERA will remove this restriction.

This change took effect on 6 April 2026.

Fact sheet outlining the Government’s intention with this provision.

An employee during a protected period of pregnancy (starts with the date they informed their employer of their pregnancy and ends 18 months after the birth) enjoys certain protections in a redundancy situation.

The ERA seeks to extend those protections by introducing regulations whereby the protections extend to any dismissal of an employee during this protected period. It further provides that the protection will also apply to other forms of family leave such as adoption leave, shared parental leave, neonatal care leave and bereaved partners’ paternity leave. A new amendment, tabled in March 2025, introduces the right of the Secretary of State to lay down regulations which will set out the specifics of the notice provisions to employees and the evidence required should an employee be dismissed during this protected period. The notes in this amendment make it clear that the Government’s intention is to ban dismissals during this protected period except in certain prescribed circumstances.

the July 2025 Roadmap has confirmed this change will take effect from 2027.

The consultation on this provision was published on 23 October 2025 and closes on 15 January 2026. It can be found here.

There is no statutory right for employees to take bereavement leave following the death of a family member. The only exception is for parents who lose a child under the age of 18 years.

New bereavement leave will be available for any employee suffering a family bereavement and it is expected to be a minimum of one week. Regulations will set out who will be entitled to the period of leave, how that will be taken and that it must be taken within at least 56 days of the death. It will not be paid leave, but parental bereavement leave will continue to be paid leave. July 2025 amendments confirmed that this bereavement leave would be extended to parents who suffer a miscarriage before 24 weeks. This will include circumstances where IVF implantation has failed and medicated terminations.

The July 2025 Roadmap has confirmed this change will take effect from 2027.

The consultation on this provision was published on 23 October 2025 and closes on 15 January 2026. It can be found here.

Fact sheet outlining the Government’s intention with this provision.