March 9, 2026
Last updated 9th March 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 using 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
Key legislation
Other key legislation
- Equality (Race and Disability) Bill
- Legislation to limit the length of non-competes
- Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act 2024
- Right of trade union access
- 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 increase as follows:
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- 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.
- Additionally, the accommodation offset will increase to £11.10 per day.
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- 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.
These are:
- Statutory sick pay – £123.25 or 80% of average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.
- Statutory maternity pay, paternity pay, adoption pay, shared parental leave pay, neonatal leave pay and parental bereavement pay – £194.32
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 was 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 invited views from all interested parties to ensure this new code of practice is clear and balanced.
Consultation closed: 28 January 2026
Fire and rehire
Dismissing or replacing an employee to alter core employment terms (known as ‘restricted variations’) will constitute automatic unfair dismissal under the ERA 2025. This consultation is specifically asking for feedback on which expenses, benefits, and shift changes should be covered by these protections.
Consultation closes: 1 April 2026
Trade unions
This consultation is seeking views on two areas of trade union law.
The first concerns the revised code of practice for recognition and derecognition of unions. With changes coming into force on 6 April 2026, this consultation is crucial to ensure the code of practice is updated accordingly.
The second part of the consultation is on proposed legislation to prevent unfair practices in electronic ballots.
Consultation closes: 1 April 2026
Protection from detriments
The ERA 2025 is introducing new statutory protections for workers against employer detriments designed to penalise, prevent, or deter them from participating in official industrial action. However, the government has yet to specify which detriments will be prohibited. This consultation seeks views on the types of detriments to be captured by the legislation.
Consultation closes: 23 April 2026
Threshold for triggering collective redundancy obligations
Under the ERA 2025, employers will be required to undertake collective redundancy consultation and notification to the Secretary of State where proposed redundancies across their organisation as a whole meet a specified threshold.
The government is seeking views on the level and methods by which the new organisation-wide threshold for triggering collective redundancy obligations might be set.
Consultation closes: 21 May 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, such as 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
Other key legislation
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 was 18 February 2026.
Date of entry into force
TBC.
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.
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.
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