How bereavement leave is changing

From April next year, employees’ entitlement to unpaid time off work after suffering a bereavement will extend to step and half relatives, as well as foster, kinship care and adoptive relationships.

The new legislation will include employees who lose a spouse, partner, parent, adult child or sibling. Those who suffer a bereavement will be entitled to up to two weeks’ unpaid leave.

• The Government had already confirmed the new rights will apply to parents who experience a miscarriage before 24 weeks of pregnancy.

What was previously covered

A legal right to unpaid leave for employees who had suffered a bereavement was only introduced under The Employment Rights Act of December 2025.

Before that, only parents who had lost a child under 18 or stillborn from 24 weeks had a legal right to bereavement leave.

Support for those grieving

No one should have to fight for time to grieve. These changes back people going through some of the hardest moments of life, whoever they are and wherever they work.

Minister for the Future of Work, Kate Dearden

Why babies infected in the womb are ‘more likely to have autism’

Babies could be at a higher risk of autism and intellectual disability if they contract infections such as rubella and herpes in the womb, a new study has suggested.

What you need to know about the study

Researchers from Sweden’s Karolinska Institute analysed health records from 3.7 million people born between 1987 and 2021.

• 975 of these had been diagnosed with a so-called congenital “torch” infection – a group of parasitic, bacterial and viral diseases.
• Children known to have had one of these before birth were around three times more likely to be diagnosed with autism, and seven times more likely to have an intellectual disability.
• The researchers also found that those who had been infected, but had neither of these tended to have slightly lower school grades at 16.

Family circumstances not a factor

To check whether genetics or family circumstances might have affected the result, the researchers compared the affected children with siblings who had not contracted a congenital infection, but the associations with autism and intellectual disability remained.

Experts emphasised that infections are very rare, occurring in only around 2.5 per 10,000 births.

• The authors said the study strengthened the case for vaccination and other measures that stop infections being passed on to the foetus.

• The observational study cannot prove that the infections caused autism.
• It also relied on clinically diagnosed congenital infections, meaning that milder or symptom-free infections could have been missed.

Why CNN thinks it can sue its way back into White House

After reporters from CNN, MS Now and were denied entry to the White House, the media organisations headed for the courts to get their access back.

The rest of the media suspended some coverage of Donald Trump in sympathy, but he has not backed down, setting up his own “Trump TV” live channel.

Mid-afternoon Friday, DC time, Trump officially banned CNN, MS Now and from the White House, explaining it was “a result of their constant ‘reporting’ FAKE NEWS!”

He threatened that “Other Fake News Media Outlets [are] to follow”, adding “[t]here’s something wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely negative stories”.

The media companies’ legal argument rests on three grounds: that the ban did not follow “due process” such as allowing notice; that it violates a constitutional right to free speech and that it also violates free speech by denying access to a “non-public forum” (the White House).

• Washington DC’s district court judge Timothy Kelly ordered that the defendants file a response the next day, with a hearing set for Wednesday.

What did Trump say?

Trump claimed to have “expected” the lawsuit, and again attacked the media organisations, saying the Oval Office “should be treated with Decorum, Respect, and Dignity, not defiled by Third Rate Clowns”.

But he seemed to anticipate being ruled against in the court, saying “we’ll go for appeal”.

What does the law say?

Timothy Kelly previously ruled on a similar case. In 2018, he ordered that a CNN reporter should get his White House press pass back after he was banned following a contentious exchange with the President.

Experts note that because a system has been created that allows journalists access to parts of the White House, courts have placed limits on how access can be withdrawn.

But, an appellate court previously ruled that presidents retain substantial authority over who they allow into limited-access settings.

Are other media taking sides?

• Major US television outlets agreed to suspend some video coverage of Trump, in a demonstration of solidarity with the banned channels.
• No broadcaster covered the ribbon-cutting for the White House’s new helipad, and the President’s remarks were inaudible on a hastily-arranged live stream.
• Media organisations also joined in a boycott of the photographic pool at the White House.
• There was normal media coverage for the President’s visit to meet New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who said he had told Trump that all members of the press would be present.

Analysis reveals why Kent meningitis outbreak was so severe

Scientists have revealed what made the bacteria behind a deadly meningitis B outbreak in Kent in March particularly dangerous.

The context

Twenty-one people were diagnosed with invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) in a week, in the outbreak which was linked to a nightclub in Canterbury.

Two teenagers died and nine required intensive care.

Experts from the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) and University of Oxford found that the bacteria underwent a process called horizontal gene transfer – where it picked up small pieces of DNA from other bacteria.

This means the bacteria can borrow genetic traits without reproducing and changes how it interacts with human cells. The change made it particularly effective at causing severe illness and may have affected how the immune system recognised it.

How the UK is trying to prevent future outbreaks

Following the Kent outbreak, a one-off menB vaccination programme was launched as universities start again.

What else is being done?

The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) has also recommended that teenagers be offered the jab on the NHS at the age of 15.

How PIP claims for ADHD are rising for teens in richer areas

The number of 16- to 17-year-olds claiming personal independence payment (PIP) for ADHD and autism has more than tripled in richer areas over six years, according to analysis by the Nuffield Trust.

What is PIP for?

PIP is the main benefit paid to people who have a long-term physical or mental health condition or disability and is intended to help with everyday tasks and living costs.

According to government statistics from July, there were 4.1 million claimants entitled to PIP in England and Wales.

While the amount of teenagers claiming PIP in deprived areas is higher, the number has grown at a slower rate, from 2.1 per cent in 2019 to 5.1 per cent last year.

This compares to a rise from 0.8 per cent to 2.5 per cent for teenagers from the least-deprived neighbourhoods.

• The think-tank also found that PIP recipient rates for ADHD and autism for white people were higher overall than those of other ethnicities.

The new claims about Lucy Letby – and what it means for appeal

Lucy Letby has failed – twice – to get judges to overturn her convictions for murdering seven babies and attempting to murder seven more. However, fresh claims that her prosecution is a major miscarriage of justice have been made in the new documentary, Lucy Letby – Scapegoat?, a collaboration between  and Channel 5.

A doctor who worked alongside Letby at the Countess of Chester Hospital says he believes the evidence used to convict her is “extremely poor” and that there was no killer on the neonatal unit, saying instead she was a “scapegoat” used by hospital bosses to cover up the unit’s poor performance.

• Individual failings and sub-optimal care at the hospital were discussed at length during both of Letby’s trials, but prosecutors insisted they did not explain the deaths.

Some details ‘not shared with jury’

The documentary claims there was a set of results relating to a baby who was poisoned by Letby that were not shared with the jury.

• Letby was convicted of attempting to murder two babies by secretly injecting insulin into IV bags which were being used to treat them.
• During the trial, jurors were told how a blood result for Baby F pointed to insulin coming from an external source rather than being produced by the body.
•  now claims that there were a further 14 glucose readings which were “normal” at the time Baby F was poisoned but that this evidence was not shown to the jury.
• Retired detective Stuart Clifton, who investigated killer nurse Beverley Allitt, said the result should offer “clear grounds for appeal”.

Baby died ‘after Letby left the unit’

A mother has said her baby suddenly collapsed at the hospital and later died, six months after Letby was taken off the unit.

The statistics around the unusual number of collapses and deaths at the Countess of Chester between 2015 and 2016 were a key part of the prosecution case.

There were a total of 12 deaths from 2010-14 and then eight in 2015. Since Letby left the unit in July 2016, there has only been one.

Expert questions method of alleged murders

One of the methods by which Letby was said to have murdered babies was injecting them with air to cause an air embolism.

However, vascular surgeon Dr Colin Ferguson told : “The fact that in no case was air found in the heart at post-mortem means that this is just not true.”

Following her retrial, Letby was convicted of attempting to murder a baby by removing her breathing tube.

• Senior doctor Ravi Jayaram claimed that he walked in to find Baby K having collapsed with Letby standing over her cot doing nothing.
• However the documentary obtained a contemporaneous email written by Jayaram which said that Letby called him for help.
• The discrepancy over whether Jayaram went in because he was worried or because Letby called him for help was highlighted in the Thirlwall public inquiry into her case.

What happens now?

Letby remains in prison and her only avenue to clear her name is an application to the miscarriages of justice watchdog the Criminal Cases Review Commission (CCRC).

The CCRC is currently considering her application but there is no timeline as to when it will decide whether it believes Letby’s case should be referred back to the Court of Appeal or not. Only a fraction of all applications submitted are successful.