In focus by topic and date
The government’s key employment policy changes, by topic and date.
Quick links by date
The dates below are indicative and based on the government’s published roadmap, but may be subject to delay or change
Quick links by topic
2025
Business immigration
What is changing?
The first phase of UK work visa reforms came into effect on 22 July 2025, marking a significant shift in how businesses access overseas talent. Key changes include increased salary thresholds across visa routes – read our immigration round-up. The required skill level for Skilled Worker visas has also increased from RQF Level 3 to RQF Level 6, meaning only graduate-level roles are eligible for sponsorship unless listed on new interim shortage occupation lists. Additionally, the Social Care Worker visa route has closed to new overseas applicants, although in-country switching remains possible until July 2028 under specific conditions. Further reforms expected later in 2025 include shortening the Graduate visa duration, increasing the Immigration Skills Charge by 32%, raising language requirements, reviewing settlement pathways, and introducing a new family migration framework. There are further changes expected by the end of 2025 which employers should be aware off. These reforms include decreasing the time allowed on graduate visas, raising the Immigration Skills Charge (ISC fee) by 32%, increasing language requirements across visa routes, reviewing current time in the UK leading to settlement and introducing a new family policy framework. These measures form part of a broader programme of immigration and border security reform, with additional announcements on asylum and border control anticipated later this year.
How should employers respond?
Employers should review the salaries of current and prospective Skilled Worker and Graduate Route employees to ensure compliance with the new thresholds, and assess commonly used SOC codes to identify any roles affected by the uplifted skill threshold. Recruitment plans must be aligned with the new skill and salary requirements, and sufficient Certificates of Sponsorship should be secured in advance. Organisations should also prepare for increased recruitment costs and tighter compliance scrutiny. Internal policies, offer letters, and training materials must be updated to reflect the changes, particularly regarding dependants and sponsorship obligations. HR and global mobility teams should be briefed to ensure consistent application of the new rules and to stay informed about further changes expected throughout the year.
Industrial action
What is changing?
When the Employment Rights Act is finalised (known as Royal Assent), the legislation providing for minimum service levels in certain disputes is repealed immediately. In addition, the following changes take effect two months after Royal Assent: the 40% support threshold for industrial action ballots in important public services and the picketing supervision provisions are repealed; advance notice of industrial action is reduced, from 14 to 10 days; the ballot mandate for industrial action is increased, from six to 12 months; and the information a union must include on the ballot and industrial action notices, and voting paper, are reduced. Further changes to industrial action regulation take effect in 2026: electronic and workplace balloting will be made available; the 50% ballot turnout threshold is expected to be repealed in favour of a simple majority; and protection against detriment for taking part in industrial action will be introduced. Protection against dismissal for taking industrial action is also being strengthened, although the implementation date is to be clarified.
How should employers respond?
Employers should review the state of industrial relations and the risk of industrial action, including how they can best prepare for, and respond to, situations where it will be simpler, cheaper and quicker for a trade union to commence industrial action. Contingency plans should be adapted to reflect reduced advance information provided by unions and a shortened 10 day notice period.
2026
Pensions review
What is changing?
The Pensions Bill contains a number of major pension reforms to implement the government’s vision for workplace pensions in the UK. It is expected receive Royal Assent in 2026; however many of the reforms will require secondary legislation before they will come into force. The government has published a roadmap which sets out when it anticipates the various reforms to workplace pensions will be implemented.
How should employers respond?
For more detail of the changes and to stay abreast of what actions employers should be taking to prepare, please see our Pensions Schemes Bill interactive tracker
April 2026
National minimum wage
What is changing?
Annual increases to national minimum wage (NMW) rates will take effect. Increases are expected to reflect the government’s stated NMW aims in its Plan to Make Work Pay. For example, the government has already changed the Low Pay Commission’s (LPC) remit, linking the NMW rate to the cost of living. In addition, it has instructed the LPC to narrow the gap between the NMW 18-20 year rate and the National Living Wage by taking steps, year by year, in order to achieve a single adult rate. It has also asked that the under 18 and apprentice rates are set as high as possible without damaging the employment prospects of each group.
The government has also committed to enforcing the payment of NMW for travel time, if applicable, with no current timescales published.
How should employers respond?
Anticipate increased costs and compliance risks. Audit NMW processes, reflecting the complex rules and risks of inadvertent breaches. Enforcement by the state makes no distinction between deliberate and accidental breaches and non-compliance risks reputational damage, large financial penalties and back pay to affected workers for up to six years.
Collective redundancy protective award
What is changing?
The maximum protective award for a failure to comply with collective redundancy consultation obligations will increase, rising from 90 days’ to 180 days’ pay.
Separate changes to the current threshold for collective redundancy consultation will take effect in 2027 (see below).
How should employers respond?
Increasing the maximum protective award will introduce significant new risks for a failure to comply with collective consultation and employers should review their redundancy processes for compliance.
Paternity and unpaid parental leave
What is changing?
Paternity and unpaid parental leave will become day one rights. The current restriction on taking paternity leave after shared parental leave may also be removed at the same time, but this is still to be confirmed.
How should employers respond?
Amend paternity and unpaid parental leave policies to reflect the changes. Anticipate further changes, reflecting a review of the family leave system which is expected to conclude later in 2026.
Whistleblowing
What is changing?
Disclosure of sexual harassment will be explicitly protected under the whistleblowing legislation.
How should employers respond?
Employers should review the wording of whistleblowing policies and procedures, including staff training, and update these, where necessary, to reflect the change.
Fair Work Agency
What is changing?
A new Fair Work Agency (FWA), bringing together existing enforcement bodies, will be established. The FWA will have powers to enforce underpayments such as in respect of statutory holiday pay, the national minimum wage and statutory sick pay. In some situations, it may bring employment tribunal proceedings in place of workers, provide legal assistance and/or recover enforcement costs.
How should employers respond?
Expect a targeted approach to enforcement, including on holiday pay, sick pay and the national minimum wage. Employers should consider undertaking a pay audit of their workforce pay practices to identify and address any inadvertent issues.Copy here
Statutory sick pay
What is changing?
Statutory sick pay (SSP) will be available from the first day of illness, removing the current three day waiting period. In addition the current lower earnings limit (£125 per week) will be removed, making SSP available to lower paid employees. The rate of SSP will be set at either the flat rate in force from time to time (currently £118.75 per week) or 80% of the employee’s average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.
How should employers respond?
Budget for increased SSP costs from April 2026 if employers do not pay enhanced company sick pay. Review sickness absence policies and ensure managers are adequately trained on managing short-term sickness absence, levels of which may rise as a result of these changes.
Trade unions: statutory recognition
What is changing?
Significant changes are being made to the legal procedure which applies when a trade union seeks statutory recognition for collective bargaining purposes. For example, the changes: reduce the initial admissibility test that a union must meet; replace the recognition ballot support threshold with simple majority voting; amend the access and unfair practice rules; assess the number of workers in a bargaining unit at the point of application; and will make electronic balloting available. A non-independent union will no longer “block” an application for recognition from a union that has a certificate of independence. A consultation on these measures is expected in autumn 2025.
How should employers respond?
The changes make it easier, quicker and cheaper for trade unions to apply for (and to secure) recognition and an increase in recognition requests is anticipated. Employers should review their engagement strategy, monitor for changes, address engagement concerns, evaluate a range of engagement channels, including voluntary recognition and staff forums, and consider how they would respond in the event of an application.
Industrial action
What is changing?
Further to industrial action changes made in 2025, electronic and workplace balloting will be made available. In addition, the government has stated that the 50% ballot turnout threshold would be repealed at the same time as e-balloting was introduced, and be replaced by simple majority voting. However, timing for that change has yet to be confirmed.
How should employers respond?
Employers should review the state of industrial relations and the risk of industrial action, including how they can best prepare for, and respond to, situations where it will be simpler, cheaper and quicker for a trade union to commence industrial action.
October 2026
“Fire and rehire/replace”
What is changing?
Where an employee is dismissed for failing to agree to contractual variations of a particular kind (a “restricted” variation), or to enable the employee to be re-engaged or replaced by another employee under a varied contract, which must include a restricted variation, that dismissal will be treated as automatically unfair. A “restricted” variation includes reductions in an employee’s pay or time off, and changes to working hours, pensions or shifts. However, it will not be automatically unfair if the reason for the variation was to eliminate, prevent or significantly reduce/mitigate financial difficulties affecting the employer’s ability to operate as a going concern and it could not reasonably have avoided the need to make the variation (local authorities and public sector employers are subject to different financial hurdles). An employer will also risk an automatic unfair dismissal in situations where employees are dismissed and the principal reason is to replace them with agency workers or contractors – workers who are not employees. There are a number of relevant factors to be considered when assessing fairness of ”fire and rehire” dismissals (whether a restrictive variation or not), including the level of consultation carried out. A consultation on these measures is expected in autumn 2025.
How should employers respond?
The changes will significantly limit an employer’s ability to enforce contractual change (in the absence of agreement), notably to pay, hours and holiday provisions, reflecting the introduction of “restricted” variations. An employer that fails to evidence sufficient financial difficulties and/or acts unreasonably, as assessed under the statutory provisions, risks being subject to significant financial penalties and legal risks. As a result, the wording of contracts, the offer of employee incentives, consultation processes, negotiation strategies and the potential replacement of employees with contract labour will all need to be carefully considered in this context.
Fair Pay Agreements
What is changing?
New powers provide for secondary legislation to create state bodies which will negotiate Fair Pay Agreements (FPAs – a new form of sectoral collective bargaining), in the adult social care sector. Scotland and Wales will build on existing provisions in the adult and children’s social care sector. A consultation is planned for summer/autumn 2025.
How should employers respond?
Employers in this sector should anticipate a lengthy consultation and implementation period, reflecting the complexity and relative novelty of FPAs.
Procurement
What is changing?
New powers provide for a reinstated and strengthened ‘two-tier’ Code of Practice (subject to devolved arrangements in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), which applies where certain workers are transferred from the public to the private sector and work alongside private sector employees, and is aimed at both sets of workers not being treated less favourably.
Separately, the government has stated that its intention is to extend the Freedom of Information Act to apply to private contractors providing public services and to publicly funded employers in “due course”.
How should employers respond?
These changes will have significant implications for affected employers. Employers should await further updates, to support their preparations.
Tips
What is changing?
Employers will be required to consult with trade union/worker reps (or affected employees if no reps are in place) before producing the first version of a written tipping policy and to review the policy at least once every three years and in consultation with reps or affected employees. The government plans to consult in late 2025 or early 2026.
How should employers respond?
Anticipate scheduling review dates on written tipping policies and allow for consultation with appropriate representatives/affected employees as part of that review.
Duty to inform workers of their right to join a trade union
What is changing?
Employers will be required to inform new workers of their right to join a trade union at the same time as they provide a written statement of employment particulars, and to inform all workers of this right on a regular basis.
How should employers respond?
Employers should prepare to update their written particulars once the change is finalised. Further details, including the form and frequency, will follow in regulations. A consultation is expected in autumn 2025.
Trade unions: right of access
What is changing?
Independent trade unions will have the right to request workplace access (which includes physical access and/or the ability to communicate with workers) and negotiate access agreements with employers, with the process enforced by the Central Arbitration Committee. The purpose of access is defined: to allow union officials to meet, support, represent, recruit or organise workers or to facilitate collective bargaining (not for organising industrial action). A consultation, which will include when it is reasonable for a union to be granted, or denied, access, is expected in autumn 2025.
How should employers respond?
All employers, including those not currently unionised, should prepare. For example, by conducting a health check of current employee relations, reviewing their engagement strategy, training managers in the new right and identifying any key issues arising from having third parties accessing a workplace (health and safety, regulatory requirements, data privacy, confidentiality, liability etc).
Trade unions: individual rights and protections
What is changing?
Changes will be introduced to the existing rights for an official of a recognised trade union to take paid time off during their working hours to carry out trade union duties and for a union learning representative to take paid time off. These include: requiring employers to provide reasonable accommodation and other facilities, as well as time off; introducing new trade union equality representatives, with rights to paid time off and facilities; and, shifting the burden of proof to the employer, in the event that an employee claims a breach of the right to time off. A consultation will follow on updating the existing Acas Code of Practice.
Other changes will strengthen trade union individual protections, including against blacklisting (in 2027), against detriment for taking industrial action (takes effect in October 2026) and against dismissal for taking industrial action (implementation date to be clarified).
How should employers respond?
Employers with existing time off arrangements will need to review policies and how they are implemented locally by managers, make changes to incorporate facilities and equality representatives, and raise awareness among those managing time off arrangements.
Harassment
What is changing?
All employers will be required to take ‘all’ reasonable steps to prevent workplace sexual harassment and third party harassment liability will be introduced (whether related to sex or any other protected characteristic).
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 will then follow in 2027 (see below).
How should employers respond?
Employers will need to be proactive in how they prevent and tackle harassment at work, with the reasonable steps varying from employer to employer depending on factors such as the employer’s size, the sector it operates in, the working environment and its resources. For example, employers should review and update their anti-harassment policies, training, contractual clauses, reporting channels and mechanisms for investigating and handling reports.
Employment tribunal time limits
What is changing?
The time limit for making claims in employment tribunals will increase from three to six months. This would bring the time limit for all claims in line with the time limit for statutory redundancy and equal pay claims (which is already six months).
How should employers respond?
Review litigation strategies and processes. A doubling of most tribunal time limits may lead to an increase in tribunal claims, particularly when combined with changes to the qualifying period for unfair dismissal. However, the longer period also increases expectations that employees act to mitigate their loss, by finding new employment, and could provide extra time for complaints to be settled.
2027
Harassment
What is changing?
Following the implementation of the new employer duty to take ‘all reasonable steps’ to prevent sexual harassment in October 2026 (see above), regulations will be published to specify steps that are to be regarded as ‘reasonable’.
How should employers respond?
Until the regulations are published, employers can make general preparations to ensure that it is taking proactive steps to prevent sexual harassment in the workplace, including reviewing and updating their anti-harassment policies, training, contractual clauses, reporting channels and mechanisms for handling reports. Once regulations are published, employers should then ensure that they take any further ‘reasonable’ steps that are required.
Blacklisting
What is changing?
Protection against blacklisting, where information is compiled on individuals concerning their trade union membership and activities with a view to that information being used to discriminate against them, will be strengthened by regulations, yet to be made. A consultation is expected in winter/early 2026.
How should employers respond?
It is expected that the regulations will, among other changes, extend the current prohibition to include third parties compiling blacklists, not just employers or employment agencies, and to lists that are not prepared for the purposes of discrimination, but are subsequently used for that. Employers should stay updated and review their practices.
Equality action plans
What is changing?
Large employers (i.e. those with 250 employees or more) will be required to publish an equality action plan on addressing gender pay gaps and actions to support employees going through the menopause and prescribed information in relation to such plans, as well as naming large providers they contract with for outsourced workers (with timescales for the measures relating to outsourced workers being depending on broader changes to pay gap reporting, including progress of the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill).
Subject to prior consultation, regulations will be made to require large employers to (a) develop and publish an equality action plan showing the steps that they are taking in relation to gender equality (including addressing the gender pay gap and supporting employees going through the menopause); and (b) publish prescribed information relating to the plan.
How should employers respond?
Prepare to invest time and resources in assessing and understanding pay gap information and in formulating gender equality action plans.
Pregnancy, maternity and other leave
What is changing?
New regulations are expected to make it unlawful to dismiss women who are pregnant, on maternity leave, and during a six-month return-to-work period, except in ‘specific circumstances’. Protection will also be extended to employees in respect of adoption, shared parental, neonatal care and bereaved partners paternity leave and for a period after returning to work from taking these forms of leave.
A consultation is planned for autumn 2025. The regulations will determine the details, including what the ‘specific’ excepted circumstances will entail.
How should employers respond?
Employers should expect that dismissing an employee during a protected period will only be lawful in limited circumstances and ensure processes are in place to keep a record of those employees who are within a protected period across the business to reduce the risk of breaches of the proposed new laws (particularly in large organisations).
Umbrella companies
What is changing?
Umbrella companies will become subject to existing regulatory and enforcement frameworks, reflecting government concerns that some are depriving workers of their employment rights. The government’s view is that umbrella companies should be regulated in a similar way to employment businesses. Separately, it is also changing the treatment of PAYE, increasing the responsibility of recruitment agencies that supply workers (engaged by an umbrella company) to the end client. Where there is no agency in a labour supply chain, this responsibility will sit with the end client. The government will consult on these measures in autumn 2025. The tax changes are expected to take effect from April 2026.
How should employers respond?
Employers should risk assess their direct and indirect use of umbrella companies, including in labour supply chains, taking into account the increasing risk of PAYE responsibility and changes to regulation.
Collective redundancy consultation threshold
What is changing?
The duty to collectively consult on redundancies will be widened. The trigger for consultation will be either 20 or more employees at one establishment, or, in a case where employees are being made redundant at more than one establishment, a higher number (that number to be determined in regulations). The HR1 notification (to the government) trigger will also be similarly amended. Changes are also made to collective redundancy notifications for ships’ crew. Both notification changes are anticipated to take effect at the same time as the threshold changes, however this has not been confirmed. Acas and government guidance, and the form HR1, will also require updating.
How should employers respond?
The new threshold will require pro-active assessment of all redundancies across the employer. It may also result in more collective consultation, involving workplace representatives and trade unions, and employers should consider how they will manage any such increase. The legislation does confirm that employers are not required to consult all representatives together, or to consult with a view to reaching the same agreement with them all (presumably where the reasons are unrelated).
Flexible working
What is changing?
In response to an application for flexible working, an employer may continue to rely on the existing statutory grounds to refuse. However, a change will require that it must be reasonable for the employer to refuse on that/those ground(s) and, when notifying its refusal, explain why it considers it reasonable.
A consultation is planned for winter 2025/early 2026 and the government is also expected to issue regulations which specify steps an employer must take in order to comply with the requirement to consult before rejecting an application (a consultation duty was only recently added in 2024). The Acas Code on flexible working will also need to be updated.
How should employers respond?
Anticipate more workers expecting to work flexibly and tribunal claims to consider the reasonableness of an employer’s refusal. However, the potential penalty (eight weeks’ pay) remains unchanged. Risk assess the impact on your current flexible working strategy, including policies and culture.
Bereavement leave
What is changing?
A new right to unpaid bereavement leave will be introduced, which will be extended to cover pre-24 week pregnancy loss.
Further regulations are required to confirm: the employee’s required relationship to the person who has died (or in the case of pre-24 week pregnancy loss the required relationship to the employee who has suffered the pregnancy loss/child that was due to be born had the pregnancy loss not occurred); the length of the leave (at least one week); and the period in which the leave must be taken (which must extend to at least 56 days after the person’s death). A consultation on this detail is planned for autumn 2025.
How should employers respond?
Anticipate amending parental bereavement leave policies once further detail is published, considering any current compassionate leave policies and how the new right to bereavement leave may interact.
Zero hour and low hours contracts
What is changing?
A new duty will require employers to offer qualifying workers on zero hours contracts (ZHCs) and those with a ‘low’ number of guaranteed hours, who work more than these hours, a guaranteed hours contract which reflects the hours they work over a reference period. Provisions also regulate worker acceptance or rejection of the offer. In addition, there is a new duty to provide reasonable notice of shifts for certain workers, including those on ZHCs, and of any changes in shift, together with a right to payment for cancelled, moved or curtailed shifts. There are related worker protection and tribunal enforcement provisions. Following consultation, the government has confirmed that the measures will also extend to agency workers.
Further consultation, planned for autumn 2025, will address details such as the scope of ‘low-hour’ workers, possible exemptions, and to ensure that, where work is genuinely temporary, there is no duty to offer permanent contracts. Extensive regulations will also provide detail on how the changes will apply in practice.
How should employers respond?
While workers may choose to remain on ZHCs if they wish, or alternatively it is possible to contract out of the measures under the terms of a collective agreement, employers should expect increased costs and administration (in particular, due to the duty to offer guaranteed hours, if applicable). As part of assessing their response to these changes, employers may consider moving away from some ZHCs in favour of alternative contractual arrangements. However, they should first assess these changes (and measures in subsequent ZHC regulations) before deciding their response given the scope and complexity of some of the details.
Day one unfair dismissal
What is changing?
The existing two-year qualifying period will be removed for claims of ordinary unfair dismissal. During an “initial period of employment” (and during the period of three months after the end of that period if the employer has given notice of termination before the end of the period), the test for a fair dismissal will be modified to allow employers to terminate employment more easily for conduct, capability, illegality or some other substantial reason (SOSR) relating to the employee (it should be noted that such reasons do not include redundancy, or SOSR unrelated to the employee). The government will consult in summer or autumn 2025 on the modified dismissal process, the duration of the “initial period” (with its stated preference currently being nine months), how that interacts with the Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures and the compensation regime for successful claims arising out of the termination of employment during the initial period, which is expected to be subject to a compensation cap.
How should employers respond?
Review recruitment practices, including current probationary periods (and how they are monitored and extended), dismissal processes and prepare to amend contractual clauses, performance management/probationary procedures and manager training to meet the new requirements. Prepare for an increase in unfair dismissal claims and consider how to resource their management.
Implementation timescales not yet confirmed
Equal pay and pay gaps
What is changing?
Measures relating to ethnicity and disability reporting and equal pay rights will be delivered through the (as yet unpublished) Equality (Race and Disability) Bill (ERDB). A Regulatory Enforcement Unit will be established for equal pay matters.
The government launched a consultation on mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting and call for evidence, both of which have now closed, and which will inform the measures to be included in the ERDB.
How should employers respond?
Plan for additional pay reporting duties under the ERDB which will make it mandatory for large employers to report their ethnicity and disability pay gap. Advance work on data collection, assessment and understanding of pay gaps will be required.
Non-disclosure agreements
What is changing?
Any provision in an agreement between an employer and a worker will be void if it seeks to prevent the worker from making certain allegations or disclosures of information relating to certain work-related discrimination and harassment. There will be provision for exceptions to this; but further detail is required including further regulations. Further consultation and regulations are expected but there are currently no published timescales.
How should employers respond?
Depending on the scope of any exclusions, this could significantly impact an employer’s (and worker’s) ability to agree confidentiality terms (or non-disclosure agreements (NDAs)) in certain cases of discrimination and harassment. Employers should anticipate reviewing the current wording and/or the inclusion of any confidentiality clauses e.g. in template settlement agreements in certain cases of discrimination and harassment and how this will affect their approach to defending or settling claims, once in force.
AI
What is changing?
The government will consult on how surveillance technologies are implemented in the workplace, including the role of trade unions and worker representatives (it is expected to include a duty to meaningfully consult with them). There are no timescales attached to this consultation and it is not expected in the short-term.
How should employers respond?
Anticipate reform and stay updated. A duty to consult, if included, reflects the direction of travel in recent EU legislation (e.g. on platform workers, which requires employers to involve worker representatives on the use of AI and algorithmic decision-making).
Holiday pay records
What is changing?
A new employer duty to keep adequate records to show compliance with statutory annual leave entitlements will be introduced. There are no timescales for this change as yet.
How should employers respond?
Employers should consider setting up record-keeping systems for statutory annual leave where they do not already exist. According to the legislation, the records may be created, maintained and kept in such manner and format as the employer reasonably thinks fit.
Single ‘worker’ status
What is changing?
The government will consult on creating a single status of worker for all but the genuinely self-employed (this could give ‘workers’ the same rights as ‘employees’, including unfair dismissal, by merging the two tiers into one). It has also committed to enhancing the rights of the genuinely self-employed (including extending health and safety protections).
How should employers respond?
Expect a lengthy consultation, reflecting the challenges involved and the need to avoid creating new, inadvertent status litigation risks. If a single worker status is to be created, employers should assess potentially significant changes to staffing models, costs, risks and incentives.
Health and safety review
What is changing?
The government has stated that it will review, and modernise, existing healthy and safety (H&S) regulation, including taking steps to strengthen the H&S rights of the self-employed, to address the needs of a diverse workforce and extreme temperature risks at work. The timing of the review is currently unclear.
How should employers respond?
Stay updated with developments and expect a consultation before any changes are introduced.
ESG and sustainability
What is changing?
The government is reviewing how it might strengthen corporate transparency and accountability in relation to modern slavery and trafficking risks, in companies’ operations and supply chains. In March 2025, it strengthened its expectations of businesses in its guidance (Transparency in supply chains: a practical guide). The timing is unclear and the government has said it will set out next steps in due course.
How should employers respond?
There is a growing pressure on the government to act, further to parliamentary investigations into forced labour risks. Employers should expect some changes, for example, to strengthen the enforcement of modern slavery reporting obligations.
Family leave review
What is changing?
In July 2025, the government launched a review of the entire family leave and pay system, expected to run for 18 months and includes a call for evidence. This is likely to lead to further reform. After the review’s conclusion, the government will publish its findings and a roadmap, setting out any further proposed family leave forms and timescales.
How should employers respond?
Employers should await further detail and expect change in this area.
TUPE review
What is changing?
The government has committed to: reviewing “a wide variety of issues relating to TUPE regulations and process, including how they are implemented in practice”, with no published timescales as yet.
How should employers respond?
Employers should await further detail and expect change in this area.
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