Impact assessment

Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay Northern Ireland — Screening Equality Impact Assessment

Published 6 April 2026

Project objectives

In 2022 Northern Ireland introduced Statutory Parental Bereavement Leave/Pay (SPBL/P) through the Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022. This Act provided for a two phased implementation. The first phase implementation mirrored the GB provisions for SPBP/L. The second phase implementation will introduce changes to the eligibility criteria that will apply only in Northern Ireland.

These changes will extend parental bereavement pay to eligible employees in Northern Ireland who experience a miscarriage before 24 weeks of pregnancy and to ensure all rights under the SPBP legislation in Northern Ireland will be a day 1 right, removing the current 26 weeks of continuous employment qualification period.

The changes will allow those persons who experience a miscarriage, along with their partners and other specified persons who have a connection to the pregnancy, to receive Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay for up to two weeks.

This impact assessment is in relation to the operational delivery of the changes.

Customer groups affected

The customer groups that will be directly impacted by the change are:

• employees
• employers
• payroll software developers
• employer paid agents

What customers will need to do

The Employee must complete a declaration confirming their eligibility to receive SPBP NI and then confirm if they wish to receive either leave and pay as 2 consecutive weeks, 2 weeks in separate 1-week blocks, or as 1 week of leave only. The leave and pay can start on or after the date of death, miscarriage or still birth and must finish within 56-weeks of the date of death, miscarriage or still birth.

Assessing the impact

We assessed the impact on those in protected characteristic groups in line with the Equality Act and Public Sector Equality Duty; and Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act:

• racial groups

• sex

• gender reassignment

• sexual orientation

• age

• religion or belief

• pregnancy and maternity

• marriage and civil partnership

• people with dependents and those without

• political opinion (for Northern Ireland only)

• people who use different languages (Including Welsh Language and British Sign Language)

There is no evidence to suggest any specific impacts on those customers within any of the protected characteristic groups listed above. Online guidance will be available. Extra support will be provided as required.

Equality impacts identified

Disabled and not disabled

Impact on customers

There may be customers who, due to their disability, require additional support in dealing with HMRC.

Proposed mitigation

Guidance published on GOV.UK complies with Government Digital Service (GDS) standards, accessibility standards and GOV.UK style guides.

HMRC provide an Extra Support Service for those customers who may need additional help.

Opportunities to promote Equalities

We have considered opportunities to promote equalities and good relations between people in each of the protected characteristic groups and those outside of that group, none have been identified. HMRC will continue to constructively engage with customers to explore opportunities in the future.

A full Equality Impact Assessment is only required if potential major direct impacts are identified through the External Customer Screening Equality Impact Assessment. This measure does not introduce any change to the current reporting process.

A full Equality Impact Assessment is not recommended.