The UK government has said it supports paid bereavement leave for couples who experience a miscarriage.

Business Minister Justin Madders told MPs he “fully accepts” the principle of bereavement leave for pregnancy loss and promised to look at adding the right to the Employment Rights Bill.

Currently employees are eligible for parental bereavement leave if they or their partner have a stillbirth after 24 weeks of pregnancy.

Labour MP Sarah Owen, who chairs the Women and Equalities Committee, has been calling for this right to be extended in cases where miscarriages take place before 24 weeks.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Madders said: “Bereavement is not an illness, it’s not a holiday and it does need its own special category.”

He added: “I am grateful to the work of the Women and Equalities Committee for raising the important issue of miscarriage leave.

“The loss of a baby at any stage is an incredibly difficult personal experience and the inquiry they conducted demonstrated a clear gap in support for those who experience pregnancy loss and need time to recover and grieve.”

He said Owen had shown “great bravery” in speaking about the own experience of having a miscarriage.

In 2021, Owen told MPs that after her own miscarriage she felt physically better in a few days but had “all the classic signs” of grieving.

“I could not eat, I could not sleep. I really did not hold much hope that life would ever get brighter,” she said.

Owen and her committee have proposed changes to the Employment Rights Bill which would ensure parents bereaved as a result of a pregnancy loss are entitled to two weeks of leave.

During a debate on the bill on Tuesday, Madders said: “We fully accept the principle of bereavement leave for pregnancy loss, as raised in the amendments, and we look forward to further discussions with [Owen] and [peers] as the Bill moves on to its next stages in the Lords.”