The following information provides an employment law timeline and includes details of proposed developments that businesses need to be aware of in the months ahead.
Bullying and Respect at Work Bill
This private members Bill if passed, would introduce a statutory definition of bullying at work. In addition, it would make a provision relating to bullying at work that includes enabling claims relating to workplace bullying to be considered by an employment tribunal. It would also introduce a Respect at Work Code that would set minimum standards for positive and respectful work environments and give powers to the Equality and Human Rights Commission to investigate workplaces and organisations where there is evidence of a culture of, or multiple incidents of, bullying and to take enforcement action. The Bill had its first reading in the House of Commons on 21 October 2024, and the second reading is not scheduled to take place until 9 January 2026.
Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill
This Bill is about the safeguarding and welfare of children, support for children in car, the regulation of care workers, establishments and agencies and independent educational institutions and inspections of schools and colleges, as well as dealing with teach misconduct. This Bill is currently at the report stage in the House of Lords, for which a date is to be announced. Once their report is published, the Bill is then passed for its third and final reading.
Company Directors (Duties) Bill
If passed, this Private Members’ Bill, would amend section 172 of the Companies Act 2006 to require company directors to balance their duty to promote the success of the company with duties in respect of the environment and the company’s employees. It is early in the process and currently waiting a date for the next stage which is its second reading.
The Domestic Abuse (Safe Leave) Bill
This Bill proposes to provide employees who are victims of domestic abuse with up to 10 days paid leave each year to support in dealing with the many challenges experienced when trying to leave the relationship. This is currently at the 2nd reading stage in the House of Commons and is scheduled to take place 28 November 2025.
The Employment Rights Bill
This Bill, when passed, will introduce the biggest changes in employment law in decades. Impacting the entire employment lifecycle, it will change how we recruit and retain our employees, and in managing the ending of the employment relationship. The Bill is at the final stages with a few sticking points on a few (but key) amendments made by the House of Lords. Until both Houses can agree, the Bill continues to ‘ping pong’ between the House of Lords and House of Commons. Once agreement is gained, the final version of the Bill will be passed for Royal Assent so that it can become an Act of law. We still expect this to be any time now.
Equality (Race and Disability) Bill
We know through the Employment Rights Bill, that the Government are seeking to reform areas of equality relating to race and disability. A standalone Bill has been drafted which has recently been the subject of a public consultation. The Government are currently analysing the feedback from this process. In terms of the Bill, it is proposing the following:
- Introducing mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting, modelled on the existing gender pay gap framework.
- Extending equal pay rights to ethnic minority and disabled workers, allowing claims on contractual equal pay grounds.
- Potential establishment of a specialist enforcement or regulatory body to oversee compliance and coordinate action plans.
It is unclear when this Bill could come into force, but our research indicates it may not be until 2027.
Legislation – by implementation date
2025
December 2025
Estimated December/January: Employment Rights Act 2025
It is estimated that the Employment Rights Bill could be passed as an Act of law around December 2025.
Estimated December-January: First set of reforms expected to come into force
There are several reforms that will come into force not long after the Bill is passed, either immediately on its passing, or certainly within two or three months thereafter. These include:
- Repealing the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023
- Repeal the majority of the Trade Union Act 2016 to prevent the need for strikes
- Removing the 10-year ballot requirement for trade union political funds
- Simplifying industrial action notices and industrial action ballot notices
- Protections against dismissal for taking industrial action
Employment Rights Act Reforms: April 2026:
- Doubling the maximum period of the protective award for collective redundancy
- ‘Day 1’ Paternity Leave and unpaid parental leave
- Whistleblowing protections broadened
- Fair Work Agency body established which will have enforcement powers to ensure fairness
- Statutory sick pay – the removal of the lower earnings limit and waiting period
- Simplifying trade union recognition process
- Electronic and workplace balloting
- Gender pay gap and menopause action plans (initially voluntary in 2026, but mandatory in 2027)
April 2026 National minimum and living wage
The minimum wage for workers over the age of 21 will rise to £12.71 in April 2026. Those aged 18-20 will get £10.85 per hour and the rate for under 18s and apprentices will increase to £8 per hour.
Finance Bill 2025-26 to amend part 2 of the Income Tax (Earnings and Pensions) Act 2003
This Act will make recruitment agencies accountable for Pay As You Earn (PAYE) on payments made on or after 6 April 2026 to workers supplied through umbrella companies (or the end client, where there is no agency). It will make the agency and umbrella company jointly and severally liable and allowing HMRC to pursue either or both. If there is more than one agency in the supply chain, the rules will apply to the agency that has the direct contract with the end client to supply the worker. Where there is no agency, or whether the agency holds a material interest in the umbrella company, the liability will fall directly on the end client.
June / July 2026 (date to be confirmed): The Data Use and Access Act 2025
The Data Use and Access Act 2025 is expected to come into force within twelve months from becoming an act of law. This would therefore be around Summer 2026. The date is yet to be confirmed, but it is anticipated to be approximately 12 months from when the Bill was given Royal Assent (19 June 2025). The Act will amend certain sections of the General Data Protection Act in areas such as automated decision making, data subject access requests and a new requirement in regard to complaints. However, a limited number of provisions have already come into force upon Royal Assent, which includes section 78 that relates to reasonable and proportionate searches for data subject access requests and the introduction of the ‘stop the clock’ mechanism.
1 July 2026 – The Drivers’ Hours, Tachographs, International Road Haulage and Licensing of Operators (Amendment) Regulations 2022
The purpose of the Regulations is to implement fully some of the international road transport provisions in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the United Kingdom. This includes prospective provisions related to drivers’ hours rules and tachograph equipment in goods vehicles (such as bringing into scope some light goods vehicles and the introduction of new tachograph equipment). It also applies to some specialised international provisions and removes some access rights for EU operators to reflect the market access in the TCA.
Employment Rights Act Reforms: October 2026:
- Dismissals connected to an employer seeking to vary an employee’s contract but the employee does not agree will be automatically unfair
- Establish the Fair Pay Agreement Adult Social Care Negotiating Body in England
- Tightening tipping law by requiring employers to consult with workers to ensure fair tip allocation
- Requiring employers to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment of their employees
- New obligation on employers not to permit the harassment of their employees by third parties
- Introducing a new duty to inform workers of their right to join a trade union
- Strengthen trade unions’ right of access
- New rights and protections for trade union reps
- Extending protections against detriments for taking industrial action
- Employment tribunal time limits extended from 3 months to 6 months
New regulatory framework to bar NHS managers for misconduct (sometime 2026)
Legislation to introduce a new regulatory framework for NHS managers is expected in 2026. The framework will establish a statutory barring system for board-level directors who commit serious misconduct, with new powers granted to the Health and Care Professions Council to disbar senior leaders. The regulations aim to prevent managers found guilty of misconduct from taking other NHS roles and include specific protections for whistleblowers.
2027
Employment Rights Act Reforms: 2027:
- Gender pay gap and menopause action plans to become mandatory
- Enhanced dismissal protections for pregnant workers, and those on and returning from family leave
- Introducing a power to enable regulations to specify steps that are to be regarded as “reasonable”, to determine whether an employer has taken all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment
- Develop a modern industrial relations framework
- Updated rules relating to protections from blacklisting due to trade union membership or activity
- Changes to the threshold for when collective redundancy consultation applies
- An employer’s reason for refusing a flexible working request must be reasonable
- A new statutory entitlement to bereavement leave
- The regulation of umbrella companies
- Ending exploitative zero-hour contracts and applying zero-hour contract measures to agency workers
- ‘Day 1’ right protection from unfair dismissal.
The Terrorism (Protection of Premises) Act 2025 (Martyn’s Law) (date to be confirmed)
This Act received royal ascent on 3rd April 2025 however the regulator (Security Industry Authority – SIA) have said that there will be at least 24 months required in preparing for the law to come into force. In the meantime, premises and events seeking advice on preparing for Martyn’s Law should continue to look for Home Office updates. They can also access free technical guidance and operational advice on protective security on the government partner websites of the National Protective Security Authority and ProtectUK.
April 2027 – Mandatory Payrolling Benefits
Government announced previously that it would be delaying the roll out of legislation that would mandate Payrolling Benefits in Kind (BIK) until April 2027. Mandating payrolling of BIK is the inclusion of the estimated value of non-cash employee benefits directly in the regular payroll instead of reporting separately on an annual P11D form. Until such time, it continues to be voluntary, and we expect draft legislation and guidance to be provided from around Autumn 2025.
2028
6 April 2028 – Pension age increase
The new normal minimum pension age will become 57 years from 2028, following the amendment to Part 4 of the Finance Act 2004 (pension schemes etc).
Legislation date unknown
Pensions (Extension of automatic enrolment) Act 2023 (date to be confirmed)
This legislation removes the current age requirements for eligible workers to be automatically enrolled into a workplace pension. The current minimum age is 22 years, but this will be reduced to 18 years. No date has been set for when this legislation comes into force.
Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act 2024
New legislation is to come into force that will provide new statutory rights for those taking paternity leave in cases where a mother, or a primary adopter, passes away. In this tragic situation, it will provide the other parent or partner who would have taken paternity leave with an automatic day-one right to take immediate paternity leave.
This legislation received Royal Assent back in 2024 under the previous Government, but we are waiting a date for when it is to come into force. However, given the Employment Rights Bill and the reforms within that, particularly around family leave, it may be this statutory right comes into force around the same time.
Sunday trading – Protection for shop workers
The right of shop workers to opt out of working Sundays on religious or family grounds is to be extended to any ‘additional’ hours above their normal hours which they may normally be obliged to work if requested. The duty of employers to advise workers of these rights is also to be extended. Enterprise Act 2016 contains provisions to strengthen certain aspects of the protections given under the Employment Rights Act 1996 specific to shop and betting workers. This Act received Royal Assent, i.e. became law on 4 May 2016, but the provisions making the Sunday working amendments have not yet been brought into force.
In addition, the amendments to ERA 1996 envisaged the making of regulations as secondary legislation to fill in the detail of how the revised legislation would work, and that secondary legislation has not yet been published, although the power to make it is in force. With a change in Government since this came into force, the current government have not given any indication that it intends to enact this legislation and so we have no precise indication as to when these changes will take effect, or if they will ever come into force.
Children and Social Work Act 2017 Whistleblowing – Protection for children’s social care applicants
Section 32 of the Children and Social Work Act 2017 when it commences will allow the Employment Rights Act of 1996, s 49C to enable the introduction of regulations that prohibit relevant employers from discriminating against an applicant for a children’s social care position because it appears that they have made a protected disclosure. At this time, draft regulations are yet to be published.
