According to business secretary Andrea Leadsom, who made the announcement today, the new legal right, coming into force from April, is a world first.
The Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay Regulations will be known as Jack’s Law in memory of Jack Herd who drowned in 2010 at the age of 23 months.
Under the new law, which Jack’s mother Lucy campaigned for, all employed parents who lose a child, or suffer a stillbirth from 24 weeks of pregnancy, will be entitled to two weeks’ statutory leave, irrespective of how long they have worked for their employer.
How it will work
Parents will be able to take the leave as either a single block of two weeks, or as two separate blocks of one week each taken at different times across the first year after their child’s death.
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