Official Report: Minutes of Evidence

The Acting Chairperson (Mr Honeyford): I welcome Colin Jack, Geraldine Lavery and Joseph Ward from the Department for the Economy. I hand over to you to brief the Committee on the SL1.

Mr Colin Jack (Department for the Economy): Thank you, Chair, and thank you for providing us with the opportunity to present the SL1 on the Parental Bereavement Leave and Pay (Miscarriage) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026.

Before we continue, I say that we recognise how emotive the subject is. We are mindful that legislative and medical language can sound clinical, but the intent of the legislation, following the Assembly's requirements through the Parental Bereavement (Leave and Pay) Act (Northern Ireland) 2022, is to create a supportive right that recognises personal loss and enables compassion in the workplace.

The regulations are required to follow the draft affirmative procedure and give effect to statutory obligations outlined in the 2022 Act, which require the Department to extend parental bereavement leave and pay entitlements to include cases of miscarriage by 6 April this year. A subsequent phase concerning day-1 rights for the pay element will be introduced separately via an additional SL1 in the next few weeks. The amendments regarding day-1 rights will proceed through the confirmatory process, while the regulations relating to miscarriage that we are discussing today will follow the draft affirmative procedure and will require debate and formal approval prior to enactment. Implementation of the day-1 rights provisions is dependent on approval of the miscarriage-related amendments in accordance with the current legislative framework.

The purpose of the regulations is to introduce a new entitlement criterion for parental bereavement leave and pay where an employee has experienced a miscarriage or meets the specified relationship criteria in relation to a woman who has experienced a miscarriage. That includes spontaneous miscarriages as well as cases involving medical intervention to help to protect the health of the pregnant woman, severe fetal impairment or fatal fetal abnormality. The entitlement applies when the miscarriage occurs or is discovered on or after 6 April 2026.

The regulations amend the existing parental bereavement leave and pay framework to ensure that employees affected by miscarriage are afforded the same rights and protections as those currently available in cases of child death or stillbirth. The policy intention is to provide eligible employees with paid protected time away from work following bereavement and to formally recognise the impact of miscarriage through a clear statutory entitlement.

A full public consultation was undertaken, and the Department's response has been shared with the Committee within the past week or so. The policy has also been subject to the necessary equality, regulatory, rural needs and data protection impact assessments, all of which concluded that the extension of those rights is proportionate and does not give rise to adverse impacts.

The Department intends to implement the right in line with the statutory requirements. We are grateful to the Committee for meeting us today and including this important right on the agenda. We are happy to take any questions.

The Acting Chairperson (Mr Honeyford): Thank you, Colin.

Ms McLaughlin: Colin, thank you very much for that. It is a very sensitive subject. How will the Department communicate the regulations effectively to employers? A lot of employers will be genuinely concerned, but they also want to do the right thing. The vast majority of employers want to support their workers; the most valuable thing that they have are those who work for them. How will you communicate the regulations to workers and the wider public? How will you work with the trade unions and others to make sure that everyone understands every jot and tittle of the legislation?

Mr Jack: The first route will be through the Department's press office and statements by the Minister. It has been fairly well established for some time that 6 April 2026 is the date on which the new right comes into force. We are the first jurisdiction to extend the right to cases of miscarriage. We have been working with, for example, the Labour Relations Agency (LRA), which takes the lead in communications with employers on all issues to do with workplace rights. Publicising the right has certainly been part of its work plan. The Department will use its social media channels and so on.

Geraldine, would you like to add anything?

Mrs Geraldine Lavery (Department for the Economy): There has also been extensive work with the team at HMRC to make sure that, when we are at the point of employers exercising the right on behalf of employees, the information and guidance is exact and is where they need it to be. The normal channels for employer and employee information through the nibusinessinfo.co.uk site and nidirect will also be utilised. People are familiar with looking at those sites for information on employment rights. That will be updated to reflect the change. The channels that people are familiar with will make sure that they have the right information.

Ms McLaughlin: I spoke to an employer at the weekend about general stuff at a social engagement. I found it interesting that, when I mentioned the legislation, even though such issues are exactly what she deals with in relation to finance and a bit of HR, she really had no idea about any of it. It was a new conversation. That communication piece will be so important so that people understand. That employer works in a sector that is made up predominantly of women, so it is really important that she understands the content of the regulations. We probably need to do more on that.

Mr Jack: That is a reasonable point. The number of people who will be entitled to the right because they have had a miscarriage will be significantly greater than the number of those who have accessed the right to parental bereavement leave and pay in the circumstances of a child's death, because, thankfully, such a thing is much rarer. I expect that a large number of employers will need to become aware of the right, because they will have people who will be entitled to it. Thankfully, until now, only larger employers and maybe a small proportion of smaller employers have had to deal with parental bereavement leave and pay.

Ms McLaughlin: Thank you.

Mr Buckley: Colin, thank you for coming to the Committee. I echo the comments that you made at the outset; it is a very sensitive issue, and terminology is used that may be triggering to some people. However, I understand that, for the purpose of the language in the regulations, a degree of accuracy is required in the crafting it.

I read that there are around 3,000 miscarriages in Northern Ireland each year. As somebody who is proud of their pro-life position, I recognise the need to support women, particularly through what the regulation enables. I wanted to say that at the outset. As someone who values their pro-life position, I also see the regulations as a recognition of life pre-birth, which is really important to me and my faith.

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do something such as this. That, in itself, is good in many ways, but there are risks associated with it, and it is important that we understand those. That is why the briefing sessions are very important. I read in one of your assessments that there is a medium risk associated with the regulation. Will you outline for the Committee what the risks are?

Mr Jack: We have discussed the risks with HMRC and our finance and audit people in the Department. The biggest risk is someone in GB trying to access the right, which is intended only for parents in Northern Ireland. We have been working with HMRC to make sure that features are designed into its systems to prevent the payment from being accessed by people who are not entitled to it. That is one of the biggest risks.

Joe, do you want to add to that?

Mr Joseph Ward (Department for the Economy): We have developed a system that will record a lot of details at the point where an employer interacts with HMRC so that we can validate and ensure that the claims for Northern Ireland employees are legitimate. That is from the point where the declaration that the person is entitled has been given to the employer. We will do validation and verification work, and it will be an ongoing process. HMRC sends a report every year to the Government Actuary's Department (GAD) that will show the uptake of the right. We have designed the system to identify the Northern Ireland-only elements separately. We can look at the scale of uptake to see how many people avail themselves of the right annually. There is a window for HMRC to adjust the figures every three years. We can come at that as and when changes or variances are reflected in an updated report.

Mr Buckley: It is fair to say that that risk is associated with a potential overrun in costs, because of additional recipients. That is fair enough on that point.

I want to talk about the evidential proof aspect. When you read the consultation responses, you see that most people who responded agreed with most of the questions. There was a degree of variability when it came to evidential proof. Again, that can be a triggering issue, and I respect that. What evidential proof pertaining to the regulations will be required?

Mr Ward: In line with what is currently present for parental bereavement pay, the evidential proof required will be a declaration on behalf of the employee. That applies to the woman who has experienced the miscarriage and the partner who is in employment. That was done for a number of reasons. First, a lot of early miscarriages cannot be recorded, and proof of such a miscarriage is based on the person's knowledge. Secondly, there is a third-party information risk, in that, if medical evidence were required, a partner, in order to qualify, would potentially have to give the woman's medical history to a third-party employer that had no connection to that woman. It was therefore done on balance to ensure that the evidence requirements are appropriate for the right and that it is a statutory payment when it is at that level.

Mr Buckley: I understand that that is an issue. I largely agree with those who responded to that question to say that, while we must be cognisant of the particular sensitivities, evidential proof for support from an employer and, indeed, others is important, especially when we look at the regulation as drafted.

In Part 2, new regulation 4A goes into the application of entitlement. There is a particular definition of miscarriage for the purpose of the regulations, and it is set out in a very specific way to ensure consistency and offset any concerns. How can you ensure that that regulation is relevant when we perhaps do not have the evidential proof if there is a self-declaration? That point came up for me when I read the regulation. I am trying to understand how you would, in a sense, keep that part of the regulation relevant. Do you understand my point?

Mr Jack: You are asking about how we can verify that someone is genuinely entitled.

Mr Buckley: Yes, given that we have to look at what the regulation says.

Mrs Lavery: It goes back to Sinéad's point about communication. When we are communicating that to the general public, we will have to change the language so that it is easy to understand what allows someone to acquire the right, so that when they make the self-declaration, they know that they are compliant. You know that only people who have been through such tragic circumstances will use the self-declaration —

Mr Buckley: Of course.

Mrs Lavery: — so it is about making sure that they understand the criteria that they need to meet in order to avail themselves of the right. It is about making sure that they have the information to know that they qualify, so that they can apply for it when they do. The communication piece is important; we need to get the language right for the end user.

Mr Jack: What you are getting at is, I suppose, fraudulent use of the right. The rate of pay that is associated with it is £194·32 a week, or it will be from 6 April 2026. It is a rate that is common to a range of statutory payments. If an employee works for an employer who does not top that up to a higher level, there is probably not an incentive for people to claim it fraudulently, because they would be taking a reduction in their pay.

Mr Buckley: I am not making an assumption about fraud. I do not look at this in that way.

Mr Jack: OK.

Mr Buckley: What I am trying to say is that, given that we are the first in the northern hemisphere to do this and that it is important to ensure that the legislation is as watertight as possible, I am just trying to understand that. You have clarified that for me, Geraldine.

Again, I suspect that it is because the wording of the regulation has to be done in a particular way for drafting purposes, but the word that stands out to me is "spontaneous". That is quite a crude word, in some instances. Are you able to explain to me what that means for the purpose of the regulations?

Mr Ward: That was done in consultation with Department of Health officials. In common parlance, it would be the case that such a miscarriage would be naturally occurring, that no medical intervention was involved or that the miscarriage was confirmed after the fact, whereas medical intervention would obviously —.

Mr Buckley: Yes.

Thank you for your indulgence, Acting Chair; this is my last point. I want to be sure about the partner rights in relation to this part of the bereavement regulation. For example, if somebody does not work at the same place but presents, again, what is the procedure? Can you talk me through that for a partner who has experienced miscarriage? What is the procedure for them with their employer?

Mr Ward: They would go to their employer and say, "I would like to avail myself of parental bereavement leave and pay". If they are an employee, they will have the leave and the pay. They would then have a form to fill in and would put that in their name, so that it is on file for HMRC if it ever wanted the full records that a miscarriage had occurred and that the employee was entitled under the criteria. The record would show that the miscarriage occurred on a certain date or was discovered by the partner on that date. That would be their only requirement.

Mr Buckley: OK. The only potential issue with that would be if a circumstance were to arise where somebody, perhaps, was making up a claim that they had a partner but did not. Is a greater evidential proof required on the part of a partner than on the woman who has experienced it?

Mr Ward: No, we kept the declaration the same as it is at present. That keeps the parental bereavement system aligned the whole way across; it is just the declaration for all criteria that you would qualify under now.

Mr Buckley: I suppose that the disincentive lies in what you said about the cost variations between what this would entitle you to compared with —.

Mrs Lavery: Moreover, it is fraud at that point. It is fraud against your employer and fraud against the statutory payment. There are consequences of that. Were someone to be discovered doing that, they would be subject to the normal disciplinary processes for that. They would be risking their employment in exercising that fraudulently.

Mr Jack: Clearly, this will be managed as part of the National Insurance Fund. The Executive will be required to pay for the cost of this particular right. Normally, for other rights that are available throughout the UK, the Executive do not need to pay for the statutory payment. There will be a process for reimbursing the costs of this particular payment. It will be audited by HMRC, which has various means of checking.

Mr Buckley: Thank you, Acting Chair, for your indulgence. Thank you, panel, for the sensitive way in which you talked me through that; it is much appreciated.

Miss Dolan: Thank you, all, for coming in and for your presentation. I agree that it is a very sensitive topic. The right is progressive and, unfortunately, much-needed.

I have a couple of questions. How will the introduction of miscarriage leave support the emotional and financial well-being of employees during the heartbreaking time that they find themselves in?

Mr Jack: It will give them time and space away from the workplace. It has been designed to be taken either as a block of two weeks immediately after the miscarriage or as two separate weeks at different times. For example, someone may want to take a week on the anniversary of the miscarriage having happened. That will work in the same way as for the existing right to parental bereavement leave and pay in the circumstances of a child's death or a stillbirth, which has been in place for the past three or four years.

Miss Dolan: Thank you. That is helpful.

What benefits do employers and the wider economy stand to gain from its implementation being cost-neutral?

Mr Ward: A statutory payment is, for the most part, reimbursed to the employer at either 92% or 108·5%. When the employer makes the payments at the statutory rate, the reimbursement depends on whether it is a large, medium or small employer. All will qualify to get 92% back. A small employer will get 108·5% back; it is topped up to meet some of the additional costs. A small business might not normally deal with such processes or have a full HR process in place and has to make the payments on an ad-hoc basis. The top-up helps to compensate them for that.

Miss Dolan: Thank you. I have no more questions. Thank you for the sensitive way in which you have handled the matter. Thank you for your work on the regulations.

Ms Nicholl: I will pick up on the point about communication. You mentioned that you had worked with the Labour Relations Agency. Following on from Sinéad's point, I am conscious that this is the minimum, and there is a point about employers knowing that they can build a more holistic package, if they are able to do so, and how that comes into their bereavement leave policies. There is also a point about the relationship test. It will have an impact on the workforce too. Managers will need to be equipped to deal with the matter compassionately.

Who will take the lead on the communication? How can we ensure that everyone is doing it as compassionately as possible?

Mrs Lavery: There is a soft skill associated with it. We recognise that, especially in the case of small employers, employers may not necessarily look at the guidance until they need to use it. When people come to use the guidance, we need to make sure that the communication is accessible and emphasises the need for compassion and for employees to be treated with sensitivity and trust. We need to incorporate that into the guidance. It is about making it accessible at the point when it is needed.

Obviously, we have lots of good employers here. The larger employers in particular will know that the change is coming, and some have already adjusted their policies. There are many employers who have gone above the statutory minimum payment in anticipation of the legislation, and that is great, but not every employer has the capacity to do that or has an HR department. Therefore, we need to make sure that the information is accessible.

Our focus is on delivery. The team has worked very closely with HMRC on payroll, the accuracy of the payments, the tests that need to be met and capturing that in a way that is accessible. The supporting guidance will have points of reference to support someone who is new to the process when in the unfortunate circumstance of needing to avail themselves of it and is bringing it to their employer. We need to make sure that it is tailored in such a way that it is accurate and reflects the sensitivities of the circumstances in encouraging employers on how they should deal with that set of circumstances. We are mindful of that in developing the communications.

Mr Jack: There are quite a lot of well-established networks of HR professionals from across businesses and the public sector. For example, there is the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD), and some of the other business organisations have HR practitioners forums and so on. We have been engaging with them all across the whole range of employment law issues. We have been mentioning this as something that will come in relatively soon. We are raising that awareness. Certainly, when the original right to parental bereavement leave and pay was introduced, the LRA produced a video and podcast, which it had available on its website. I expect it to do something similar with this as well.

Ms Nicholl: When there was an update about it on the news recently, someone who I know was going through it, so I am mindful of the deeply personal impact that it has and how it will make such a difference in people's lives, especially for women, who have often had to do that on their own. The difficulty for the father or partner has not necessarily been acknowledged. At the moment, as an Assembly, we do not have much that we are proud of or where we are leading, but that is a really important example. Thank you very much for the work that you have done on that. It is something about which we can be proud.

Mr Jack: Some of those personal experiences very much came through when the Assembly was considering the Bill back in 2022. That was very evident then.

Mr Ward: With regard to the communications, one of the other elements that we will move forward with is to put a more holistic approach on the nidirect guidance that is there at the minute. We are in talks with some of our stakeholders that are support sector organisations, which could, perhaps, be a point of support at the end of that where a person who was going through it could be directed to another service.

Ms Nicholl: That is great. Thank you.

The Acting Chairperson (Mr Honeyford): Thank you. I echo what has been said right across: this is really positive and progressive. Seeing that change is really good.

I do not mean to be completely insensitive, but I want to talk about the money, only because it has not been picked up. It is said that it will cost around £1·5 million. However, there was a £4 million bid in the spending review. What does the Department expect the costs to be?

Mr Jack: There are different elements. There has been an administrative cost with HMRC to get the systems in place to administer that for us. That has been a one-off cost. As regards the projections of the total cost, at the time that we were bringing the Bill through the Assembly, we were basing some of our projections on, I suppose, full uptake —

The Acting Chairperson (Mr Honeyford): That is where the £4 million comes from.

Mr Jack: — by everyone who might experience a miscarriage and their partners. Over time, we have been able to refine those projections with experience of the uptake of parental bereavement leave and pay, and so on. Our latest central estimate of the annual recurring cost is that it will be somewhere between £1·1 million and £1·5 million.

Mr Ward: The £4 million includes HMRC maintenance costs for its administering the system on our behalf. We were expecting around £3·5 million to £3·6 million with maximum uptake. That is budgeted in. However, with the review that we talked about, where HMRC will demonstrate how many people are actually claiming it, we will adjust that budget as we go forward. We have budgeted for full uptake this year, with a view to reviewing it when the Government Actuary's Department has done its report to show us what the actual outworkings of it are.

The Acting Chairperson (Mr Honeyford): What is the cost to HMRC?

Mr Ward: HMRC would be compensated by us. We would pay for it. Normally, what would happen with the statutory payment is that it would come out of the National Insurance Fund, but, because this is a Northern Ireland-only right, the Department for the Economy funds it. We give HMRC an annual maintenance cost for running it on our behalf. We have given it around £1·6 million to make system changes as well. That is under budget. It was originally going to be over £2·5 million, but it has come under budget. That has been the total cost for the changes.

Mr Jack: That was an upfront cost. The ongoing cost per year will not be anywhere near that level.

The Acting Chairperson (Mr Honeyford): Money is not the reason for not doing any of that. That is the other thing to point out. I am just trying to clarify that.

In GB, the Employment Rights Bill is coming through. They might follow some of this. Have you had any discussions there?

Mr Jack: A right to leave for pregnancy loss has been included in the Employment Rights Act 2025, which got Royal Assent just before Christmas. That is an unpaid right, so we are not expecting, in the short to medium term, that GB will move into line on this. This will be something that parents in Northern Ireland will have uniquely, at least for the time being.

The Acting Chairperson (Mr Honeyford): I have nothing else for you, so thank you very much. As it has been said, the issue is really sensitive. You have handled that and presented it to us in a really sensitive and informative way. Thank you from us. We appreciate it.