An employee’s close relative has died. What leave and pay do I have to give?

The answer Just Ask, HR gives

Supportive Sara — Warm and practical — people first, process close behind.

First — the fact you're asking "what's right" as well as "what's required" matters, because UK law here is thinner than most people expect, and the gap is where good employers distinguish themselves.

What the law actually requires:

• Time off for dependants: a day-one right to reasonable unpaid time off to deal with an emergency involving a dependant — and a parent's death qualifies. It covers the immediate necessities: registering the death, arranging the funeral, dealing with sudden practicalities. "Reasonable" is typically understood as a few days, not weeks — and it is unpaid unless your contract says otherwise.
• Parental bereavement leave: if the person who died had been a child under 18 (or a stillbirth after 24 weeks), there's a specific right to 2 weeks' leave with statutory pay. It doesn't apply to the death of a parent.
• Beyond that — no general statutory bereavement leave for adult relatives currently exists (reforms in this area are progressing; check gov.uk for the current position).

What decent practice looks like (and what most SMEs I'd benchmark you against actually do): 3–5 days' paid compassionate leave for an immediate family member, flexibility to top up with holiday or unpaid leave, and no fit-note quibbling in week one. If grief develops into something longer, a GP will usually sign them off — at which point normal sickness absence rules and pay apply, and that's a perfectly proper route.

This week, practically: tell them to take the next few days without worrying about categories — you'll sort the paperwork afterwards. Agree a light-touch check-in. When they return, expect a wobble around the funeral and be generous with it. And then write down what you did as a simple compassionate leave policy — the next bereavement shouldn't depend on who happens to be managing the rota.