Time off for dependants when HR software handles urgent absence (UK)

When a child's nursery closes without warning, a parent is taken to hospital or a partner is assaulted, an employee may have to leave work at once. The law gives employees a right to a reasonable amount of time off to deal with emergencies like these. HR systems often handle that absence badly: they demand advance booking, file it as sickness or unauthorised absence, or feed it into an attendance score. This page sets out the rules in Great Britain and where software most often goes wrong. It is for employees and for employers.

The short answer: under section 57A of the Employment Rights Act 1996, an employee is entitled to a reasonable amount of time off during working hours to take action that is necessary for a dependant in an emergency. The employee must tell the employer the reason as soon as reasonably practicable and, usually, how long they expect to be away. The section sets no minimum length of service and no fixed number of days. Taking the time off is protected from detriment and dismissal.

What the time off covers

The time off is for action that is necessary (s57A(1)):

• to provide assistance when a dependant falls ill, gives birth, or is injured or assaulted;
• to make arrangements for the care of a dependant who is ill or injured;
• in consequence of the death of a dependant;
• because care arrangements for a dependant are unexpectedly disrupted or ended;
• to deal with an incident involving the employee's child that happens unexpectedly while a school or other educational establishment is responsible for the child.

Illness and injury include mental illness and injury (s57A(6)). The right is to a reasonable amount of time to deal with the situation, not to a set allowance. A tool that gives every employee a fixed bank of "emergency days" and blocks requests once it is used up is applying a rule the statute does not contain.

Who counts as a dependant

A dependant is the employee's spouse or civil partner, child or parent, or a person who lives in the same household other than as the employee's employee, tenant, lodger or boarder (s57A(3)). For illness, injury or assault, it also includes anyone who reasonably relies on the employee for help or to arrange care (s57A(4)), and for disrupted care arrangements anyone who reasonably relies on the employee to arrange care (s57A(5)). A drop down list limited to close family will miss some people the law covers.

Notice: what the law asks for

The right applies only if the employee tells the employer the reason for the absence as soon as reasonably practicable and, unless that can only be done after returning to work, how long they expect to be absent (s57A(2)). There is no requirement to give notice in advance, in writing, or through a particular channel, and the section does not mention evidence. An absence portal that rejects a same day request, or marks the absence unauthorised because it was not booked ahead, can turn a lawful absence into a disciplinary record.

Pay

Section 57A gives a right to time off; it says nothing about pay. Whether the time is paid depends on the contract or the employer's policy. Payroll rules should follow that policy and should not treat the absence as sickness, because it is the dependant, not the employee, who is ill or in need.

Protection and complaints

An employee has the right not to be subjected to a detriment for taking or seeking to take time off under section 57A (s47C, reg 19 of the Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations 1999), and a dismissal for that reason, or a redundancy selection for it, is automatically unfair (s99, reg 20). An employee whose employer unreasonably refuses to permit the time off can complain to an employment tribunal, which can make a declaration and award just and equitable compensation (s57B). Since 1 October 2026 the time limit for that complaint is six months, up from three, under the Employment Rights Act 2025 (SI 2026/954), with early conciliation through Acas first.

Attendance scoring is the main risk. If time off for dependants counts towards a trigger that leads to a warning, a lost bonus or a dismissal, the employer may face a detriment or unfair dismissal claim, and possibly a discrimination claim where the dependant is disabled. Our page on AI and unfair dismissal covers automated decisions more generally.

Practical steps

• Employers: set up time off for dependants as its own absence type that can be logged on the day or after the event, with no advance booking, no fixed cap, no service test and no evidence upload as a condition. Keep it out of sickness pay rules and out of absence trigger scores, as with time off for public duties. Have a manager, not the system, decide whether the time taken was reasonable.
• Employees: tell your employer the reason and how long you expect to be away as soon as you reasonably can, and keep a note of when and how you did. For planned care of someone with long-term needs, see carer's leave; for planned time with a child, see unpaid parental leave; for a death of a child, see parental bereavement leave.

Section 57A extends to England, Wales and Scotland. This page is general information on the law in Great Britain as at 1 November 2026, not legal advice.