What changed in April 2026
The day-one rights are live. The checklist for making sure your handbook has caught up.
Employment Rights Act 2025
The biggest shake-up in UK employment law in a generation is already live.
Day-one rights arrived in April 2026. On 1 January 2027 the cap on unfair dismissal awards is removed entirely. Most handbooks written before 2025 reflect none of it. Check yours against current UK law in minutes.
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Until unfair dismissal awards become uncapped
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SecondsWhy now
Your handbook was written for rules that no longer apply.
If your staff handbook predates 2025, it does not reflect the Employment Rights Act. Statutory sick pay is now payable from day one. Paternity and unpaid parental leave are day-one rights. The duty to prevent sexual harassment has been strengthened. And from January 2027 the unfair dismissal qualifying period falls to six months with no cap on what a tribunal can award. The gap between what your handbook says and what the law now requires is exactly where the risk sits.
- 1 Jan 2027
- Unfair dismissal compensation cap removed
- 6 months
- New qualifying period, down from 2 years
- £123,543
- Today's cap, gone from 2027
- 59
- UK legislation and guidance sources Regulyn checks against
Sources: Employment Rights Act 2025; gov.uk; legislation.gov.uk. Figures current to September 2026, verify before relying on them.
The timeline
What the Employment Rights Act changes, and when
Measure by measure: what is already law, what is coming, which policies are affected and what to do about each one.
Already in force: has your handbook caught up?
In forceThese measures took effect on 6 April 2026. They are not upcoming changes to prepare for; they are current law your policies should already reflect.
| Date | Change | Policies affected | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 April 2026 | Statutory sick pay from day one | Sickness absence policy, payroll procedures | Remove any reference to three waiting days or the lower earnings limit. SSP is payable from the first day of sickness, to all employees regardless of earnings, at £123.25 a week or 80% of normal weekly earnings if lower.Sickness absence policy guide |
| 6 April 2026 | Day-one paternity and unpaid parental leave | Paternity leave, parental leave and onboarding documents | Remove the old 26-week and one-year qualifying service requirements. New starters can give notice of leave from their first day, and paternity leave can now be taken after shared parental leave.April 2026 employer checklist |
| 6 April 2026 | Bereaved partner’s paternity leave | Family leave and compassionate leave policies | Add provision for bereaved fathers and partners to take up to 52 weeks of leave if the mother or primary adopter dies within the first year of the child’s life. |
| 6 April 2026 | Whistleblowing protection for sexual harassment disclosures | Whistleblowing policy, anti-harassment policy | Make sure your whistleblowing policy treats disclosures about sexual harassment as protected disclosures, with the reporting route to match. |
| 6 April 2026 | Collective redundancy protective award doubled | Redundancy policy and consultation procedures | The maximum protective award for consultation failures doubled from 90 to 180 days’ pay per employee. The policy wording may not change, but the cost of skipping proper consultation has. |
October 2026: the harassment bar rises
UpcomingThe next wave lands in October 2026: tribunal time limits on 1 October, the harassment and trade union changes on 30 October. Both dates are fixed by commencement regulations.
| Date | Change | Policies affected | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 October 2026 | Tribunal time limits extended to six months | Record keeping, grievance and dismissal documentation | Claimants get six months rather than three to bring most claims. Contemporaneous notes and retained records matter for twice as long.Acas Code of Practice guide |
| 30 October 2026 | “All reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment | Anti-harassment policy, risk assessments, training records | The duty rises from “reasonable steps” to “all reasonable steps”. You will need a documented harassment risk assessment, current training and evidence of both, not just a policy on file.Harassment prevention policy guide |
| 30 October 2026 | Liability for third-party harassment | Anti-harassment policy, front-of-house procedures | Employers become liable for harassment of staff by customers, clients and other third parties unless all reasonable steps were taken to prevent it. It covers harassment related to any protected characteristic, and public-facing businesses are most exposed.The October 2026 harassment duty explained |
| 30 October 2026 | Right to join a union in written particulars | Written statement of particulars, employee relations policies | Add a statement of the right to join a trade union to your written statement of particulars template. Union access rights and protections for representatives are strengthened on the same day.What the law requires in writing |
1 January 2027: unfair dismissal changes everything
UpcomingThe most consequential changes for day-to-day management land together on New Year’s Day 2027.
| Date | Change | Policies affected | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 January 2027 | Unfair dismissal qualifying period cut to six months | Probation, disciplinary, capability and dismissal procedures | Anyone with six months’ service on 1 January 2027 is protected immediately, including existing staff. Probation reviews and documentation need to conclude well inside six months.The six-month rule from January 2027 |
| 1 January 2027 | Unfair dismissal compensation cap removed | Dismissal procedures, settlement practice | The compensatory award cap (£123,543 after the final April 2026 uprating) is abolished. Awards reflect actual loss with no ceiling, so process failures on higher earners become far more expensive.Writing a disciplinary policy that works |
| 1 January 2027 | Fire-and-rehire restrictions | Contract variation and restructuring procedures | Dismissing and re-engaging staff to force through changes to key contract terms becomes automatically unfair except in narrow financial-distress circumstances. Consultation becomes the only safe route. |
Later in 2027 and beyond
UpcomingFurther measures are due through 2027, with details still to be set in regulations.
| Date | Change | Policies affected | What to do |
|---|---|---|---|
| Expected 2027 | Guaranteed hours for zero-hours workers | Zero-hours and casual worker arrangements, scheduling | Employers will have to offer qualifying workers guaranteed hours reflecting the hours they actually worked, give reasonable notice of shifts and pay for shifts cancelled at short notice. The consultation on the detail closed in August 2026. If you rely on zero-hours contracts, start reviewing rotas and contract terms now. |
| Expected 2027 | Flexible working refusals must be reasonable | Flexible working policy, manager guidance | You will only be able to refuse a request where it is reasonable to do so, and must explain in writing why. The day-one right to request, two requests a year and the two-month decision window are April 2024 law and should already be in your policy.Flexible working requests you cannot refuse |
| Expected 2027 | Mandatory equality action plans | Equality policy, pay gap reporting | Employers with 250 or more staff will have to publish action plans on the gender pay gap and menopause support. Voluntary plans have been possible since April 2026. |
| Expected 2027 | Regulations defining “reasonable steps” on harassment | Anti-harassment policy and risk assessment | The government will specify what counts as reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment, turning today’s judgement call into a checklist you can be measured against. |
| Expected 2027, date to be confirmed | Bereavement leave as a general right | Compassionate and bereavement leave policies | A day-one right to at least a week of unpaid bereavement leave, including for pregnancy loss before 24 weeks, is enacted with the scope to follow in regulations. Build the policy heading now and fill in the entitlement when the rules land. |
The handbook is no longer a one-off job. It changes as the law does. See how legal change alerts work.
Last verified 13 September 2026 against the government implementation timetable and ACAS guidance. Upcoming measures may change as commencement regulations are made.
How Regulyn fixes it
Paste, check, fix. It takes minutes rather than a lawyer's hours.
Three steps from a handbook you are not sure about to one you can defend, without a legal retainer or a rewrite from scratch.
1
Paste your policies
Drop in your existing handbook or start from a template. Regulyn structures it into the policy types a UK employer needs, so there is nothing to format or organise first.
- Paste a whole handbook, a single policy, or start from a Regulyn template.
- Sorted automatically into the 50+ UK policy types across the employment lifecycle.
- You do not need to tidy it up first. Regulyn reads whatever you have and structures it.
2
See every gap, ranked by risk
Regulyn checks each section against current UK employment law and returns a ranked list of issues, so you fix the biggest exposure first.
- Checked against 59 legislation and guidance sources, including the Employment Rights Act 2025.
- Issues ranked Critical, High, Medium and Low by severity.
- Every gap cites the specific law behind it, linked to legislation.gov.uk.
3
Accept the fix
Take an AI-drafted compliant replacement, edit it yourself, or draft a missing policy from scratch. Built for UK employment law, not adapted from a US template.
- Accept a compliant redraft in one click, or refine it before you save.
- Draft missing policies from scratch in your own tone of voice.
- Export the finished handbook to Word or PDF when you are done.
- Built for UK law
- Legal citations on every gap
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- Word and PDF export
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Questions
Questions UK employers are asking
Is my employee handbook out of date after the Employment Rights Act 2025?
Probably. The Act received Royal Assent in December 2025 and is the biggest change to UK employment law in decades. Day-one rights to statutory sick pay, paternity and unpaid parental leave took effect in April 2026, and from January 2027 the unfair dismissal qualifying period drops to six months with the compensation cap removed. Handbooks written before 2025 will not reflect these changes. Regulyn checks yours against current legislation and flags every gap.
What changes on 1 January 2027?
The qualifying period for ordinary unfair dismissal falls from two years to six months, and the statutory cap on compensatory awards is removed entirely. Employees with six months service on that date gain protection immediately, so anyone hired from around July 2026 is in scope. For employers this raises the stakes on how dismissals, probation and documentation are handled.
Do I need an employment lawyer to update my handbook?
Not to find the gaps. Regulyn checks your existing policies against 59 UK legislation and guidance sources, ranks the issues by severity, cites the specific law and drafts compliant replacements you can export to Word. It is built for UK employment law rather than adapted from a US template. For contentious individual cases you should still take legal advice, but the routine handbook work no longer needs a lawyer hourly rate.
How long does a handbook check take?
Minutes. Paste your existing policies or start from a template, and Regulyn structures them, runs the gap analysis and returns a ranked list of issues with citations. You can accept AI-drafted fixes or draft missing policies from scratch.
Is the trial really free?
Yes. Seven days, no credit card. You can run a full gap analysis and see your handbook compliance position before deciding whether to pay.
What does Regulyn cover beyond the handbook?
40+ HR document types including disciplinary and grievance letters, settlement agreements and return-to-work forms, a Handbook Chatbot that answers policy questions from your own handbook with citations, dated version history as evidence of your compliance efforts, and alerts when the law changes.
Related reading
Go deeper on the changes
The six-month rule from January 2027
Why the six-month rule covers people already on your payroll, and what to do before January.
The October 2026 harassment duty
From reasonable steps to all reasonable steps, and liability for customers and clients.
ERA 2025 in plain English
The full guide to what changed, when each provision takes effect and how Regulyn helps.
What replaces the probation period
How to run probation when unfair dismissal rights arrive at six months.
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