Northern Ireland will raise the statutory bereavement award to £19,700 from 1 December 2025, under a Department of Justice order (S.R. 2025 No. 173). The fixed payment recognises grief where a death is caused by negligence, and is made alongside any dependency or funeral cost claims.

The increase is not retrospective. The order applies only to causes of action that accrue on or after 1 December, which in fatal accident cases is usually the date of death rather than the date of the negligent act. Families bereaved before that date remain on the current £17,200 figure. If in doubt, take advice promptly.

Eligibility in Northern Ireland remains tightly defined by Article 3A of the Fatal Accidents (Northern Ireland) Order 1977. Those who can receive the fixed award are a spouse or civil partner of the deceased, and-where the deceased was an unmarried minor-the parents (both if the child was legitimate, the mother only if not). Cohabiting partners are not included in Northern Ireland, unlike England and Wales.

On the cross‑UK picture, England and Wales currently set a lower fixed bereavement award of £15,120, while Scotland assesses loss of society on a case‑by‑case basis rather than using a single figure. Northern Ireland therefore remains above England and Wales on the headline sum but still uses a fixed approach.

This is the third uplift in recent years. The award moved from £14,200 to £15,100 in May 2019, then to £17,200 from November 2022, and now rises to £19,700 from December 2025. The Department has opted for periodic inflationary adjustments rather than structural reform.

The legal mechanism is straightforward. Article 3A(5) allows the Department of Justice to vary the figure by order subject to negative resolution, avoiding the need for primary legislation. Practitioners should check which figure applies at the date a claim arises before issuing proceedings.

For bereaved families, the practical steps are familiar: confirm eligibility, check the date of death against the new commencement date, and keep an eye on time limits. In Northern Ireland most fatal accident claims must be issued within three years of the death, subject to limited judicial discretion.

Insurers, hospitals, councils and employers across the region should adjust reserves and live cases accordingly. While the bereavement award is only one part of a fatal claim, the rise lands at a time when overall negligence payouts are under pressure in Northern Ireland’s system.

Campaigners still want a wider list of relatives to be eligible. APIL has long argued that the narrow list excludes close relationships which are recognised in Scotland and, since 2020, for cohabitants in England and Wales. The Executive’s earlier consultation sets out that the Department of Justice sets the amount, while wider eligibility sits with other departments-so any future change would be a policy call, not just an annual uprating.