Explanatory note

These Regulations are provided under a statutory requirement imposed by the Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022 (c.5) and are made in exercise of the powers inserted into the Social Security Contributions and Benefits (Northern Ireland) Act 1992 (c.7) (the “1992 Act”) and the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996 (N.I. 16) (the “1996 Order”) by the Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022.

The amendments made by these Regulations extend the application of both the Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay (General) (No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2023 (the Pay Regulations) and the Parental Bereavement Leave (No. 2) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2023 (the Leave Regulations) to include cases where a woman experiences a miscarriage and becomes aware of it on or after 6 April 2026. The amendments also introduce new definitions to facilitate the inclusion of miscarriage within parental bereavement leave and pay, including “first day of bereavement” (covering the date of a child’s death or the date of miscarriage) and “week of the bereavement” (the week in which the death or miscarriage occurred).

The Regulations amend both the Leave Regulations and the Pay Regulations to include a new regulation 4A respectively. The amendments ensure that the entitlement provisions of both Part 12ZD of the 1992 Act and Chapter 4 of the 1996 Order apply to eligible employees who have experienced a miscarriage within the specified conditions. For these purposes, a miscarriage is specified to include either a spontaneous loss of a pregnancy before 24 weeks of gestation or the loss of a pregnancy following a medical intervention that was necessary to protect the pregnant woman’s physical or mental health, or to address a fatal fetal abnormality or severe fetal impairment.

The Regulations also extend entitlement so that the rights under parental bereavement leave and pay are available to eligible employees who, but for the miscarriage, would have been the biological or intended parent of the expected child, and to those eligible employees who are the current partner of the woman who experienced the miscarriage.

The Regulations also make the appropriate consequential amendments to the Leave Regulations and the Pay Regulations to reflect the inclusion of miscarriage within the entitlements to parental bereavement leave and pay.

An impact assessment has been prepared for these Regulations which was published on “DATE” and is available from the Department for the Economy at “https://www.economy-ni.gov.uk/publications/regulatory-impact-assessment-enhancements-parental-bereavement-leave-and-pay-include-miscarriage-criterion-and-introduce-day-one”.