The upcoming Employment Rights Bill will introduce significant changes to existing family-related rights, as well as create new ones.
This article is designed to help employers stay ahead of these changes. You’ll learn how the Bill will extend protection for employees returning from family leave, make some existing rights, such as paternity leave and parental leave, a day one right, and introduce new rights to bereavement leave after pregnancy loss, as well as a general right to bereavement leave. By preparing now, you can reduce the risk of grievances and claims and plan for future changes that you may be considering for your family-related policies.
If you are looking for help with reviewing your policies and procedures, our employment law solicitors are on hand to ensure a smooth process.
Contents:
What is the current position, and what’s changing?
Parental leave: currently, employees need to have worked for a year before becoming eligible to take unpaid parental leave. This period will be scrapped, and parental leave will become a day-one right.
Paternity Leave: at present, employees are required to have 26 weeks' service before they are entitled to take paternity leave. The Bill removes the 26-week requirement, making it a Day-one right. The Bill will also allow employees to take paternity leave and receive pay after taking shared parental leave, not currently allowed under existing law.
Increased protection for family leave returners: currently, in redundancy situations, pregnant workers and those on maternity leave (or other statutory family leave) have priority rights to a suitable alternative vacancy in a redundancy situation. This priority right also applies after returning from statutory family leave.
The Bill will allow the government to extend protection against dismissals during pregnancy, maternity leave, and other family leave. Although specifics are still unclear, the explanatory notes to the Bill state it will ban any dismissal (not just redundancies) of women who are pregnant, on maternity leave, and during a six-month return to work period, except in specific circumstances. This extended 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.
New right to bereavement leave: Apart from the right to statutory parental bereavement leave (when a child under 18 dies), there is no general statutory right to bereavement leave. The Bill introduces a new day one right to take at least one week of unpaid bereavement leave for employees after losing a loved one (the government will define which relationships qualify in separate regulations).
Bereavement leave for pregnancy loss: there is no entitlement to leave for pregnancy loss that takes place before 24 weeks at the moment. In a late amendment to the Bill, the government has introduced a new right to bereavement leave for pregnancy loss that occurs before 24 weeks. This will entitle mothers and their partners to at least one week of unpaid bereavement leave.
When will these changes take place?
The government has published a roadmap setting out when it plans to implement the various changes in the Employment Rights Bill. The changes to paternity and parental leave look set to change in April 2026. The other changes will be subject to consultation later in 2025, with the new measures being implemented in 2027.
Is the Government considering any further changes to family leave?
A review into the parental leave and pay system, including maternity, paternity, adoption, and shared parental leave has been launched to modernise the current system and support working families. It will also review the benefits of introducing paid carers’ leave. The review is expected to last 18 months, meaning the conclusions and recommendations are expected in early 2027.
What should we be doing now to plan for these changes?
While a lot of detail is still missing, we recommend that you start to conduct a thorough review of existing family-related HR policies, including those related to maternity, paternity, parental, bereavement and compassionate leave.
Summary
As an employer or HR lead preparing for the impact of the Employment Rights Bill, you’ll want to ensure that any proposed changes to family-related policies and procedures in the meantime are carried out using current best practice. Our specialist employment law solicitors can help you review and update your existing family-related policies and assist with any questions you may have. We’ll also keep you updated on any changes as they happen in the coming months.
