January 30, 2026
Last updated 30th January 2026
We’ve created this tracker to keep you up to date with all the latest developments in Employment and Immigration law – please bookmark it to make sure you don’t miss our latest posts. You can see what’s on the horizon at a glance by clicking on the video or use the links below to see a summary of the current status of the latest developments.
Please note that this material has been published for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice.
What's on the horizon?
Recent Updates
Consultations / Impact Assessments
Key Legislation
- Employment Rights Act 2025
- Equality (Race and Disability) Bill
- Legislation to limit the length of non-competes
- Right of trade union access
- Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act 2024
- The Employment Tribunals (Early Conciliation: Exemptions and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2025
Key cases
Recent updates
Autumn Budget 2025
The main takeaways from the 2025 Autumn budget are as follows:
- From April 2026, the National Minimum Wage will be increased as follows:
- Wages for those aged 21 and over will rise to £12.71 per hour;
- Wages for 18-20 year olds will increase to £10.85 per hour; and
- Wages for 16-17 year olds and apprentices will increase to £8.00 per hour.
- The accommodation offset will increase to £11.10 per day.
- From April 2029, the amount an employee can contribute to their employer’s salary sacrifice scheme without paying National Insurance Contributions will be capped at £2,000.
- Income tax thresholds, originally frozen until 2028 by Tory Chancellor Jeremy Hunt in 2021, will remain frozen for an additional three years until 2031. The relevant income tax thresholds are as follows:
- Personal allowance (up to £12,570) – 0%
- Basic rate (£12,571 to £50,270) – 20%
- Higher rate (£50,271 to £125,140) – 40%
- Additional rate (over £125,140) – 45%
Weekly rate increase
From 6 April 2026, the weekly rates of statutory payments will increase, including statutory sick pay, maternity pay, adoption pay, paternity pay, shared parental leave pay, neonatal leave pay and parental bereavement pay. We will confirm these increases once they have been officially published.
Consultations / Impact Assessments
The EU’s Pay Transparency Directive works towards increasing pay transparency by providing that employers take certain measures, such as providing specific salary or salary ranges in job adverts and banning questions about a candidate’s salary history.
The government called for input on proposed pay transparency measures as part of a wider call for evidence on equality law.
Call for evidence closed: June 2025
What’s next: The outcomes of this call for evidence are pending.
A call for evidence on the status of interns closed on 9 October 2025 as part of the government’s ongoing commitment to banning unpaid internships (unless they form part of an educational or training course).
Call for evidence closed: 9 October 2025
What’s next: A government response to this call for evidence has yet to be issued.
Duty to inform workers of right to join a union
The Employment Rights Act (“ERA 2025”) will introduce a new duty on employers to provide their workers with a written statement informing them of their right to join a trade union at the start of their employment and at other times.
The Department for Business and Trade sought views on how this new duty can be implemented effectively while minimising the burden on employers.
Consultation closed: 18 December 2025
What’s next: An outcome from this consultation is pending.
The ERA 2025 will implement a new framework for trade unions to access workplaces physically and communicate with workers in person or digitally.
This consultation invited views from those likely to be affected by this new framework.
Consultation closed: 18 December 2025
What’s next: An outcome from this consultation is pending.
Leave for bereavement including pregnancy loss
The ERA 2025 introduces a new day-one right to unpaid bereavement leave for employees who experience the loss of a loved one, including pregnancy loss before 24 weeks.
A consultation on this new right is being undertaken, seeking views on eligibility criteria, types of pregnancy loss in scope, when and how bereavement leave can be taken as well as notice and evidence requirements.
Consultation closed: 15 January 2026
Enhanced dismissal protections for pregnant women and new mothers
The government is introducing legislation which will make it unlawful to dismiss pregnant women, mothers on maternity leave, and mothers who return to work for at least a six-month period after they return, except in specific circumstances.
This consultation is seeking views on a number of points, including: the specific circumstances in which the dismissal of pregnant women and new mothers should still be allowed, when the protections should start and end as well as whether other new parents should be covered by the protections.
Consultation closed: 15 January 2026
Draft code of practice on electronic and workplace balloting for statutory union ballots
The government will introduce a new statutory code of practice on electronic and workplace balloting to accompany the introduction of these methods for statutory union ballots. This new code will provide practical information on the conduct of these ballots.
This consultation invites views from all interested parties to ensure this new code of practice is clear and balanced.
Consultation closed: 28 January 2026
The government have outlined in their Next Steps document that it intends to introduce a single worker status, under which both employees and workers would fall into one classification and, therefore, be entitled to one set of employment rights. At present, workers have some employment rights but are not entitled to other key employee rights, like protection against unfair dismissal.
As part of this consultation, the government proposes to explore how to implement its targeted and specific manifesto commitments to enhance protections for self-employed workers. Although consultation on single ‘worker’ status was expected before the end of 2025, such consultation has yet to begin.
At present, no draft legislation on single worker status has been proposed and single worker status is not addressed in the ERA 2025.
Consultation opens: TBC
Unfair dismissal – compensation cap
Currently, unfair dismissal compensation is subject to a cap of 52 weeks’ gross pay or a statutory cap (whichever is lower). As of April 2025, the current statutory cap is £118,223.
As part of the ERA 2025, the government has confirmed that it will remove both of the above caps on unfair dismissal compensation.
On 10 December 2025, the government announced it will be conducting an impact assessment on this subject. Although they have not announced a date for this assessment, they confirmed that this would be done once the ERA 2025 received Royal Assent so we should know more soon. It is anticipated that these changes will take effect alongside the change to the unfair dismissal qualifying period on 1 January 2027.
Impact assessment: TBC
Key legislation
Employment Rights Act 2025
On 18 December 2025, the Employment Rights Bill received Royal Assent and, as such, is now law under the Employment Rights Act 2025 (“ERA 2025”).
The most significant changes are summarised below:
February 2026
Trade Unions/Industrial Action
The government has published guidance to help employers, unions, and workers prepare for the new provisions coming into force on 18 February 2026. They have also published a draft code of practice.
Protection against dismissal for taking industrial action
The protected period (broadly, the first 12 weeks of industrial action) that grants automatic protection for employees from unfair dismissal for taking part in protected industrial action will effectively be extended, meaning the protection will apply irrespective of the length of the industrial action.
When: This will come into effect on February 18 2026.
Notice of industrial action ballot
ERA 2025 will reduce the amount of information that unions must include in the notice of an industrial action ballot that they send to an employer.
When: This will come into effect on February 18 2026.
Information included on voting paper:
ERA 2025 will reduce the amount of information that unions must include on an industrial action ballot voting paper.
When: This will come into effect on February 18 2026.
Mandate period for industrial action
The mandate period for industrial action, following a successful ballot, will be increased from 6 to 12 months.
Six-month mandates obtained under ballots opened before 18 February 2026 will not be automatically extended to 12 months – unions would need to re-ballot to secure a 12-month mandate.
When: This will come into effect on February 18 2026.
Notice period for industrial action
The notice period a union must give to an employer of industrial action will be reduced from 14 days to 10 days (or 7 days if the employer agrees).
Transitional arrangements have the effect that the 14 (or 7) day notice period will continue to apply to any industrial action in relation to which the employer receives a notice before 18 February 2026.
When: This will come into effect on February 18 2026.
April 2026
Penalties for not collectively consulting
Employees can currently claim a protective award of up to 90 days’ pay if their employer does not comply with its collective consultation obligations. The ERA 2025 doubles the maximum protective award to 180 days’ pay.
The trigger for collective consultation will be either:
- 20 or more employees at one establishment, which reflects current legislation; or
- Where employees are being made redundant at more than one establishment, a higher threshold number will apply – this threshold shall be determined in further regulations. This is a change to the current status quo which is being implemented under the ERA 2025.
When: According to the government’s roadmap, this right will come into force from April 2026.
Reform to statutory sick pay
At present, workers are entitled to SSP from day four of sickness if they are earning above the lower earnings limit (the current lower earnings limit is £123 per week).
The ERA 2025 will change this so that qualifying workers will be paid SSP from day one of sickness and will be entitled to SSP no matter their earnings. If a worker earns less than the lower earnings limit, they will be entitled to SSP at 80% of weekly earnings.
When: These entitlements will come into effect in April 2026.
Disclosure of sexual harassment to be added to list of qualifying disclosures
Currently, sexual harassment complaints can be protected as qualifying disclosures but only if they are characterised under existing categories of qualifying disclosures, such as breach of legal obligation or health and safety and they are made in the public interest.
The ERA 2025 will clarify this position by ensuring that sexual harassment is expressly listed as a qualifying disclosure. Such disclosures will still need to meet the relevant criteria for qualifying disclosures (i.e., the individual must reasonably believe that the information disclosed is true and is in the public interest).
When: With no public plans for further consultation on these measures, they are expected to take effect from April 2026.
October 2026
‘Fire and Rehire’
The Code of Practice on Fire and Rehire took effect in July 2024. This means that although “fire and rehire” currently remains lawful practice, it is discouraged.
Changes implemented by the ERA 2025 mean that dismissals used to impose changes to key terms (pay, hours, pensions, shift patterns/length, time‑off rights, and certain benefits to be set by further regulations) are automatically unfair, including where such measures are used to introduce new flexibility clauses, unless the employer is facing financial collapse and the measure could not reasonably have been avoided.
TUPE and dismissals wholly or mainly attributed to a reduction in work are not within the scope of this legislation, and regulations may clarify that expenses and certain pay types are also out of scope.
When: These measures are supposed to take effect in October 2026. However, the government had intended to begin taking steps to update the Code of Practice in the Autumn of 2025 and this has not yet begun.
Employers to be liable for harassment by third parties
Currently, employers must take reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace.
The Employment Rights Act expands this duty to taking “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace. Employers will also be liable for harassment from third parties, for example customers or clients, unless they have taken all reasonable steps to prevent it happening.
When: These measures will take effect in October 2026.
Extension of time limits for bringing tribunal claims
Save for in limited circumstances, tribunal claims currently need to be brought within three months of the act complained of (e.g. dismissal, discrimination, deduction from wages, etc).
The ERA 2025 extends the time limit for bringing tribunal claims from three to six months.
When: The government’s roadmap indicates that this change will come into effect in October 2026.
2027
Unfair dismissal – reducing the qualifying period
At present, employees need two years’ service with their employer before they gain unfair dismissal rights. This means that, to terminate the employment of an employee with the qualifying length of service, an employer must have a potentially fair reason for dismissing the employee and a fair and reasonable process must be followed.
The ERA 2025 will reduce the qualifying period significantly, giving employees unfair dismissal rights once they have obtained six months’ service.
When: 1 January 2027 – anybody with six months service on or after this date will have unfair dismissal rights. Therefore, this change will essentially apply to anyone who is employed from 1 July 2026 onwards.
Stronger rights to flexible working
At present, employees have a right to request flexible working from day one, but employers can refuse a request based on one or more of the following business reasons: burden of additional cost, inability to reorganise work among existing staff or recruit additional staff, detrimental impact on quality of work or performance, detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand, insufficient work during the proposed hours and/or planned structural changes to the business.
The penalty for breaching the statutory flexible working regime is eight weeks’ pay, subject to a cap of £5,600.
The ERA 2025 will implement measures which make it mandatory for employers to submit written reasons for refusing flexible working and they can only do so if their refusal is reasonable. The statutory cap will remain the same.
When: The government’s roadmap stated that consultation on these measures would take place in winter 2025 / early 2026 but this is yet to begin. The measures themselves are set to take effect in 2027.
Gender pay and menopause action plans
The Equality and Human Rights Commission currently requires employers with 250 or more employees to publish gender pay gap reports on an annual basis. Employers are not required to publish an action plan but many voluntarily do so.
New regulations will require employers with 250 or more employees to publish “equality action plans” which will include their plans for closing the gender pay gap and supporting employees through the menopause. Employers will be subject to penalties for non-compliance.
We are expecting further consultation on this, including how often plans will need to be published and what they should contain.
When: The government’s roadmap indicates that these measures will come into force in 2027 and will be introduced on a voluntary basis in April 2026.
Dates for implementation to be confirmed
Holiday (entitlement and pay) records
At present, aside from for employment businesses, there isn’t a specific obligation to maintain records which demonstrate compliance with holiday leave or pay legislation.
Under the ERA 2025, all employers will need to maintain records which demonstrate their compliance with holiday leave and pay. These records will need to be kept for six years and not doing so will be a criminal offence with potentially unlimited fines as a penalty.
When: We are awaiting clarity on when this measure will come into force.
Non-disclosure agreements
The ERA 2025 will introduce a rule meaning that any clause that prevents a worker from talking about acts of harassment or discrimination, including how their employer handled such allegations, will be void. This may be extended to cover independent contractors and trainees, with limited exceptions set by future regulations.
While these exceptions are not currently known, it is speculated that NDAs which have been entered into at the employee’s request, having received independent legal advice, may be permitted and would not be void.
When: It is currently unclear when this will be implemented as this ban was not included in the government’s roadmap.
From Bill to Act: Employment Rights Act 2025
If you would like to follow the ERA 2025’s journey from Bill to Act, you may be interested in our suite of articles from throughout the process of implementing the ERA 2025:
Published: 10 October 2024
Published: 10 December 2024
Published: 25 February 2025
Published: 17 March 2025
Published: 11 July 2025
Published: 28 November 2025
Published: 17 December 2025
Equality (Race and Disability) Bill
Key points
Announced in the King’s Speech 2024, the draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill aims to introduce a statutory right to equal pay for ethnic minorities and disabled people – making it easier to challenge pay disparities due to ethnicity or disability – and extend pay gap reporting, requiring employers with 250 or more employees to disclose pay gaps related to ethnicity and disability.
Date of entry into force
TBC. The Bill is expected to progress more slowly due to extensive consultation.
Legislation to limit the length of non-competes
The previous Conservative government had confirmed that it would introduce a statutory limit on the length of non-compete clauses of three months and bring forward legislation to introduce the statutory limit “when parliamentary time allows”.
On 26 November 2025, the Labour government published a working paper on options for reform of non-compete clauses in employment contracts. The working paper details proposals for options such as a total ban on non-compete clauses, a financial threshold on non-compete clauses which would mean they are only enforceable on higher earners, and a statutory limit on the length of non-compete clauses.
The deadline to respond to this working paper is 18 February 2026.
Date of entry into force
TBC.
Right of trade union access
There’s currently no general right for unions to enter workplaces unless the employer agrees or the CAC orders it in limited circumstances. The ERA 2025 will broaden the right of unions to access workplaces, including digitally. Unions will be able to request access to workplaces and employers will then have to negotiate the terms of this access through ‘access agreements’. If employers do not engage, the union can apply to the CAC for access. There will be penalties for non-compliance.
The government launched a consultation on the implementation of ‘access agreements’ which closed on 2 December 2024.
The government will publish secondary legislation on this subject. It will set out the statutory access‑request process, the grounds on which the CAC may refuse access, and the default access arrangements that the CAC can impose.
Date of entry into force
TBC. Expected to come into force in October 2026.
Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act 2024
The Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act received Royal Assent on 24 May 2024. The Act makes provisions about paternity leave in cases where a mother, or a person with whom a child is placed or expected to be placed for adoption, dies.
Although not set out in the Act itself, there is also an intention for additional regulations to provide for a bereaved father or partner to have 52 weeks’ paternity leave available during the first year of their child’s life, from the day on which the mother or primary adopter of the child has died.
Date of entry into force
Regulations are needed to bring the Act into force.
The Employment Tribunals (Early Conciliation: Exemptions and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2025
The early conciliation period has been extended. Previously, parties had a six-week period, from the point at which an employee notifies ACAS of their claim, to conciliate. The new regulations have doubled this conciliation period to twelve weeks.
Date of entry into force
1 December 2025.
Key cases
Ms C O’Brien v Cheshire and Wirral Partnership NHS Foundation Trust: [2025] EAT 156
Ms O’Brien was dismissed for misconduct over alleged timekeeping and false overtime claims. The Trust delayed raising concerns for about a year, by which point Ms O’Brien’s PTSD impaired her recall of relevant events. The Employment Appeal Tribunal held that the tribunal failed to factor the prejudicial effect of this delay when assessing the fairness of this dismissal. The EAT set aside the fair dismissal finding and remitted the claim for reconsideration. It also directed the tribunal to revisit whether her reasonable adjustments claim was out of time, clarifying that the relevant failure occurred by March 2019 at the latest and that any extension on a just and equitable basis must be reconsidered.
Equity and others v Talent Systems Europe Ltd (t/a Spotlight): [2025] EWHC 2254 (KB)
In a novel case dealing with the rarely litigated Employment Agencies Act 1973, the High Court held that Spotlight, which provides an online talent directory as a marketing tool for individuals in the performing arts industry, is not an employment agency and does not provide services for the purposes of finding persons employment with employers or of supplying employers with employment by them. Wiggin acted on behalf of Spotlight in respect of this action so, for those interested in learning more, we’ve prepared a short summary of proceedings to date in our Autumn edition of Worked Up.
For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2025] UKSC 16
The UK Supreme Court has unanimously ruled in the case of For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers [2025] UKSC 16 that the legal definition of “woman” and “sex” under the Equality Act 2010 refers to biological sex and not gender identity or acquired gender status through a Gender Recognition Certificate. We are currently awaiting updated EHRC guidance for employers following the outcome of this case and will be publishing our own further considerations on the practical steps employers may need to take following this decision.
Expertise