Although the Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act was passed
in 2018, the detail of how the new "day one" right will
operate in practice was always intended to be contained in
Regulations. The Parental Bereavement Leave Regulations 2020 have
now been published in draft and are expected to apply if a child
under the age of 18 dies, or is still-born after the 24th week of
pregnancy, on or after 6 April 2020.
As expected, the Regulations take a wide approach to who will be
entitled to leave. Employees who are a child's biological
parents or adopters are obviously covered, as are the intended
parents in a surrogacy arrangement, a biological parent's
partner and "parents in fact", such as foster
parents.
