Space for Grief: Great Britain to Introduce 2 Weeks of Bereavement Leave After Pregnancy Loss

From April 2027, employees affected by pregnancy loss before 24 weeks in England, Scotland and Wales will have a day-one right to up to 2 weeks of unpaid bereavement leave.

But the reform does something less obvious too: it brings failed IVF embryo transfers within the legal concept of pregnancy loss – even where implantation never occurred.

The Act allows the entitlement to extend beyond the person who experienced the pregnancy loss.

The Government has now confirmed that this will include spouses and partners, the other parent, an intended co-parent, and intended parents in surrogacy arrangements, with the detailed rules to be set out in secondary legislation.

At first glance, this is an employment-law reform. But the legislation also raises a more distinctly reproductive-law question: what, exactly, counts as pregnancy loss in law?

When an Unsuccessful Embryo Transfer Becomes a Legal ‘Loss’

The Employment Rights Act 2025 creates the statutory framework for bereavement leave to cover pregnancy loss.

Its definition is particularly significant for assisted reproduction. Pregnancy loss includes not only the ending of a pregnancy before 24 weeks other than by live birth, but also the failure of an embryo to implant following an embryo transfer performed as part of fertility treatment.

For the purposes of this employment right, the statutory concept of pregnancy loss is not limited to an established pregnancy. An unsuccessful embryo transfer may qualify even where implantation never occurred.

But the boundary is precise.

The statutory definition does not, however, extend to IVF embryo loss before transfer.

The result is a striking legal line: failure of an embryo to implant after transfer may fall within the entitlement, while IVF embryo loss before transfer does not.

Space for Grief: From Sickness to Bereavement

In Great Britain, until the forthcoming entitlement takes effect, miscarriage before 24 weeks does not give rise to a general statutory right to bereavement leave.

Where time off is needed, the person who was pregnant can rely on pregnancy-related sick leave where applicable, while employers may voluntarily provide compassionate or bereavement leave.

Partners have no equivalent general statutory entitlement following an early pregnancy loss.

This distinction between sickness and bereavement became a recurring theme in efforts to reform the law.

In 2021, MP Sarah Owen introduced a bill drawing on her own experience of miscarriage.

She told Parliament:

‘[…] what I was feeling was not a sickness. It was physically painful, yes, but my overriding feeling was grief: a deep sense of loss of hopes, dreams and mourning a lost future with babies I never got to hold.’

Her proposed Bereavement Leave and Pay (Stillborn and Miscarried Babies) Bill sought to extend leave and pay to earlier pregnancy loss, but did not progress.

In July 2022, MP Angela Crawley reintroduced a Miscarriage Leave Bill proposing 3 days of paid leave for parents experiencing miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy or molar pregnancy before 24 weeks. The Bill did not progress beyond First Reading.

The new entitlement will not abolish pregnancy-related sick leave.

Instead, it creates a separate statutory basis for absence following pregnancy loss – one grounded in bereavement rather than sickness.

From Campaign to Statutory Right

The 2023 Independent Pregnancy Loss Review called for stronger workplace support, while NHS England subsequently introduced a policy framework in 2024 offering up to 10 days of paid leave to the person who experienced the pregnancy loss and up to 5 days to their partner.

In January 2025, the House of Commons Women and Equalities Committee went further. It recommended a statutory paid bereavement entitlement covering miscarriage, ectopic and molar pregnancy, IVF embryo transfer loss and termination for medical reasons. It also heard directly from women who described current workplace provision as ‘hit and miss’.

IVF loss was also central to the evidence heard by the Committee.

Consultant gynecologist Dr. Jessica Farren emphasized:

‘[…] it is really important to acknowledge that failed embryo transfers […] are often felt as acutely as any other loss […] the emotional impact is immense. A lot of the time people have put their entire life savings or borrowed lots of money behind the hope of this pregnancy, and it represents that complete loss of hope […] often following many years of trying and miscarriages or ectopic pregnancies. It is a culmination of all this hope and effort, and it is absolutely devastating.’

The Employment Rights Act 2025 eventually created the legislative framework for pregnancy-loss bereavement leave. A government consultation then showed strong support for a broader entitlement.

• 93% of respondents opposed restricting the right to the person who physically experienced the pregnancy loss,
• 92% supported covering all forms of loss proposed in the consultation, including IVF embryo transfer loss.

What Will the New Right Actually Provide?

The entitlement will cover all types of pregnancy loss before 24 weeks, including miscarriage, ectopic pregnancy, molar pregnancy, chemical pregnancy, termination, and IVF embryo transfer loss.

Employees will be able to take up to 2 weeks of leave as a day-one employment right, with no minimum period of service required.

Leave may be used in individual days and at any point within 56 weeks of the loss or of becoming aware of it.

During the first 8 weeks, notice can be given on the day or as soon as reasonably practicable. After that, one week’s notice will generally be required.

Importantly for privacy, employees will not be required to provide medical or other evidence of the loss.

The right is expected to take effect through secondary legislation in April 2027.

Recognition – but Without Pay

One important limitation remains: unlike the reform sought by the Women and Equalities Committee and pregnancy-loss organizations, the new statutory leave will be unpaid.

Clea Harmer, Chief Executive of Sands, welcomed the new entitlement but stressed:

‘Time to grieve and seek support if you need it should not depend on your income.’

The absence of statutory pay also creates a notable contrast within the United Kingdom.

Northern Ireland introduced statutory bereavement leave following miscarriage from 6 April 2026, together with statutory bereavement pay for those who satisfy the pay conditions. Its scheme covers the pregnant woman and qualifying partners or intended parents.

Yet Great Britain’s forthcoming rules appear broader at one specifically fertility-related point: Northern Ireland describes IVF loss as a confirmed IVF pregnancy that subsequently ends in miscarriage, while the new Great Britain framework expressly includes failure of implantation after embryo transfer itself.

A Global Patchwork of Pregnancy Loss Leave

Great Britain’s reform forms part of a broader, but far from uniform, shift toward legal recognition of pregnancy loss at work.

• New Zealand provides eligible employees, generally after six months of employment, with 3 days of paid bereavement leave following miscarriage or stillbirth. The entitlement can also extend to partners and certain people who had intended to become the child’s primary carer.
• Germany treats miscarriage within the framework of maternity protection. Since June 2025, miscarriage from the 13th week triggers a graduated protection period: 2 weeks from week 13, 6 weeks from week 17, and 8 weeks from week 20.
• In federally regulated workplaces, Canada provides pregnancy-loss leave of up to 3 days, or up to 8 weeks for stillbirth. The first 3 days are paid after 3 months of continuous employment, and the right may also extend to partners and intended legal parents.
• Australia treats miscarriage before 20 weeks as grounds for 2 days of compassionate leave – paid for non-casual employees and unpaid for casuals. The right also applies where the employee’s spouse or de facto partner experiences the miscarriage.

Beyond Time Off

The reform therefore does more than give employees additional days away from work.

It creates a legal taxonomy of reproductive loss.

The line is no longer purely gestational. A transferred embryo that fails to implant can fall within the statutory definition, while embryo loss before transfer cannot. The right can belong not only to the person who physically experiences the loss, but also to a partner or intended parent.

At the same time, the absence of statutory pay means that formal recognition will not necessarily translate into an economically accessible right for every employee.

More broadly, the new rules raise a question that extends well beyond employment law:

When reproductive medicine creates new stages, relationships and forms of loss, where should the law draw the boundary of legal recognition?

Written by Armenuhi Sahakyan, LL.M., Editor at Fertility News

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