Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act 2024: New rights take effect from 29 December 2025

Bereaved partners' paternity leave

The Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act 2024 (Act) came fully into force on 29 December 2025. The Act addresses circumstances where the mother or adopter of a child dies during childbirth or within the first year following birth or adoption. In these situations, the legislation is intended to support the child’s father or the partner of the mother or adopter by enabling them to take paternity leave instead. The Act also applies in surrogacy and parental order cases.

From 29 December 2025, the usual requirement for 26 weeks’ continuous service in order to qualify for paternity leave is disapplied, and the restriction preventing an employee from taking paternity leave after shared parental leave is removed in these circumstances.

In practice, the immediate impact of these changes is expected to be limited. The Employment Rights Act 2025 is expected to remove the qualifying service requirement for paternity leave altogether and abolish the ban on taking paternity leave after shared parental leave more generally, with those reforms anticipated to take effect from April 2026. As a result, the bereavement-specific changes introduced in December 2025 are likely to be overtaken relatively quickly by the wider framework.

The full effect of the Act will depend on further regulations, which have not yet been made. It is expected that future regulations may extend the period of available leave to up to 52 weeks in these circumstances. At present, however, the timing and scope of these additional regulations remain uncertain.

For more information or advice, please contact Sofia Efstathiou  in our Employment team.