Relevance: Employers with at least 250 staff on the snapshot date 

Public sector organisations within scope of gender pay gap reporting must publish their report by 30th March each year (for the private and voluntary sectors the report deadline is 4th April).

For more on gender pay gap reporting, see our Equality Diversity & Inclusion pages.

Last updated: 21st December 2023

  Relevance: All public sector bodies with more than 49 FTE employees 

Reports on facility time usage must be submitted by 31st July each year, covering the year from April to March.

Quick Summary of Reporting Requirement:

The local authority is responsible for reporting in respect of its community and voluntary controlled schools and PRUs (but schools may have to provide information to the LA about local union representatives).

Subject to the minimum size requirement*, other public sector bodies in the education sector also have to report, including the governing bodies of voluntary aided and foundation schools, academy trusts, FE and HE institutions.

* Size requirement: employer must have had more than 49 FTE employees in at least 7 of the 12 months included in the reporting period (April to March) and at least one trade union representative during that time.

More detail on facility time reporting is available within the Trade Union Facility Time Reporting pages.

Last updated: 21st December 2023

  Relevance: Public bodies with 250 or more staff (FE colleges and universities are out of scope) 

Public sector apprenticeships target 1 April 2022 onwards:

The public sector apprenticeships target is coming to an end on 31 March 2022. From this date there will no longer be a target set for public sector employers.

Public sector employers who are currently required to report against the public sector apprenticeships target are asked to continue to gather, and later report:

new apprenticeship starts
total number of apprentices
organisational headcount

The government will publish this data annually to support transparency and external accountability, and help maintain the momentum public sector employers have built up once the current statutory target ends.

More information on the public sector targets and reporting requirement is available here.

Last updated: 21st December 2023

Government consultation on Working Time Regulations, Holiday & Pay closed on 7th July 2023. The consultation paper on Retained EU Employment Law and the proposed reforms was published on 12th May covering proposed changes to working time record keeping, annual leave &  holiday pay calculations. Changes to holiday pay, subject to parliamentary approval, are to be implemented under the Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023.  

Changes effective 1 January 2024 :

The definition is broadly in line with what is already required under case law. Most employers should not need to make any substantial changes.

Many schools already apply a ‘normal’ rate across the total 5.6-week holiday entitlement because of the administrative burden and costs of operating two different calculation methods.

If you currently operate a basic rate calculation method for that 1.6 week’s holiday you will need to change that to a ‘normal’ rate calculation if you choose to use rolled-up holiday pay.

Carry-Over of Holiday for Family-Related and Long-Term Sick Leave/ Carry-Over of Untaken Leave:

Simplifying WTR record keeping requirements

Removal of COVID carry over of holiday

Ensure you inform any affected employees that any leave untaken due to COVID must be taken by 31 March 2024.

You can find a detailed summary of the changes due in January 2024 here.

Last updated: 21st February  2024

Changes to holiday pay  are to be implemented under the Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023 for holiday years starting on or after 1 April 2024.

Changes effective 1 April 2024 :

• Introduction holiday entitlement accrual for irregular hours and part-year workers. Statutory annual leave entitlement will accrue at 12.07% of hours worked in a pay period

• Rolled-up holiday pay, previously unlawful under EU law, will now be permitted for irregular-hours workers and part-year workers. Employers can choose to implement rolled-up holiday pay, calculated at 12.07% of the worker's earnings during the pay period, paid alongside regular wages

• Ensure holiday accrual is calculated at the end of each pay period, at the rate of 12.07% based on the number of hours worked during that pay period
• For part-year workers on maternity/family-related leave:
  • employers can use the new 52-week reference period (including weeks not worked and not on statutory or sick leave) to calculate hours worked and then the holiday entitlement for the period of leave
  • The resulting holiday entitlement will be proportionate to the hours worked when not on statutory or sick leave
  • Employers can calculate holiday pay for that pro-rata leave, using a  52-week reference period, but discounting weeks when no pay was payable to the worker, or when they were on statutory or sick leave.

Actions required Rolled-Up Holiday Pay for Irregular Hours workers and Part Year Workers:

• Rolled-up pay will be based on 12.07% of normal pay for all 5.6 weeks of statutory holiday entitlement. 
• If you currently operate a basic rate calculation method for 1.6 week’s holiday you will need to change that to a ‘normal’ rate calculation if you chose to use rolled-up holiday pay.  
• Many schools already apply a ‘normal’ rate across the total 5.6-week holiday entitlement because of the administrative burden and costs of operating two different calculation methods. 

You can find a detailed summary of the changes due in April 2024 here.

The government has produced non-statutory guidance for employers which includes a range of useful calculations: Holiday Pay and Entitlement Reforms.

Last updated: 4th April 2024.

The Government has announced National Minimum Wage rates from 1 April 2024, including the National Living Wage.

The National Living Wage (NLW) will increase by 9.8% for those aged 21 and over from £10.42 to £11.44 per hour,  an increase of £1.02.  Higher percentage increases apply to those under 21 years of age and apprentices.  The projected increase in the NLW will achieve the target first set by the Government in 2019 – with the NLW  equal to two-thirds of median hourly pay for those aged 21 and over. In addition, from April 2024 the NLW will be extended to 21 and 22-year-olds for the first time. 

Below is a summary of the new rates effective 1 April 2024.

On 10 January 2024, the draft Paternity Leave (Amendment) Regulations 2024 were laid before Parliament. The draft Regulations amend the current legislation to make it more flexible by allowing eligible fathers or partners to:

• split their leave into two blocks of one week (current entitlement is to take either one week's leave or two consecutive weeks' leave);
• take their leave and pay at any point in the first year after the birth or adoption of their child (currently leave must be taken within the first eight weeks); and
• adjust the way they give notice of leave and pay to their employer with notice of intention to take leave being provided 15 weeks prior to the expected week of childbirth, and then four weeks prior to each period of leave.

The draft Regulations are due to come into force on 8 March 2024, and will take effect in relation to children whose expected week of childbirth, or date of placement for adoption, is on or after 6 April 2024.

Last updated: 28th March 2024

  Relevance: All settings 

The Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill passed into law in July 2023. On 11 December 2023, the Government published the Flexible Working (Amendment) Regulations 2023 amending the Flexible Working Regulations 2014.  The new  regulations come into force on 6 April 2024.

Forthcoming changes include:

•  The right to request flexible working from day one of employment
• An employee will be allowed to make two applications (rather than one) for a flexible pattern of work during any 12-month period
• Employees will no longer be required to explain what effect, if any, their flexible working request would have on the employer and how that effect might be dealt with
• It will be a requirement for an employer to consult with the employee about their flexible working application before refusing it
• The employer will have to notify the employee of its decision about their flexible working application within two (rather than three) months

There will be no change to the eight statutory reasons employers may use to refuse a request for flexible working. These are as follows:

• The burden of additional costs
• Detrimental effect on the ability to meet customer demand (e.g., pupils/parents)
• Inability to reorganise work amongst existing staff
• Inability to recruit additional staff
• Detrimental impact on quality 
• Detrimental impact on performance
• Insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work
• Planned structural changes

Last updated: 4th April 2024

  Relevance: All settings 

 On 25th May 2023 Royal Assent was received for The Protection from Redundancy (Pregnancy and Family Leave) Act, and The Carer’s Leave Act.

Family-friendly regulations are now set to come into effect on 6 April 2024.

Carer's leave

The government consulted in 2020 on proposals to give employees who are carers a week of unpaid leave each year for the purpose of undertaking their caring responsibilities. The response to consultation was published on 23rd September 2021.

The Carer’s Leave Regulations 2024 have now been laid before Parliament and will come into force on 6 April 2024. 

Eligible carers will be entitled to the right from day one of employment to take unpaid leave with eligibility depending on the carer's relationship with the individual requiring care. The scope of eligibility is very similar to that which is used to determine the right to time off for dependants. It covers:

• A spouse / civil partner
• A child
• A parent
• A person living in the same household as the employee, other than as an employee, tenant, lodger or boarder
• Someone else who reasonably relies on the employee for care.

The person being cared for must also have a long-term care need, subject to certain exemptions. Employees will not be required to provide evidence of their eligibility or of the care needs of the individual.

A person has a long-term care need if:

• they have an illness or injury (whether physical or mental) that requires, or is likely to require, care for more than three months
• they have a disability for the purposes of the Equality Act 2010, or
• they require care for a reason connected with their old age

Eligible employees will be able to take up to one week (5 working days) of unpaid leave per year. The leave can be taken flexibly, either in individual days or half-days, up to a block of one week. The employee must give notice of at least twice the length of the time being requested plus one day (so the notice required to take one day's carer's leave would be three days, for example). There will be a limited right to postpone the leave in exceptional circumstances to avoid disruption to the business. Any concerns over unreasonable requests will need to be objectively justified. 

For the purposes of carer’s leave, a week is the period of time that an employee is normally required to work during a week (running Monday to Sunday) under their contract. Where this varies, a week is calculated by dividing by 52 the total amount of time normally required to be worked over the 12 months ending with the last day of the carer’s leave requested.

Notice

When an employee wants to take any of their carer’s leave entitlement, they must give their employer a notice setting out the fact that they are entitled to carer’s leave and have not exhausted their entitlement. The notice must specify the times that they wish to take this leave and must be provided before the ‘relevant date’. This will be the date that falls either twice as many days as the amount of leave requested before the first day of leave or three days before, depending on which is earlier.

Postponing leave

An employer cannot require the employee to provide evidence about entitlement in relation to a request before granting the leave.

An employer who reasonably believes that the operation of their business would be unduly disrupted if the employee took the leave requested can postpone the leave. The employer must consult with the employee as to the date to which the leave will be  postponed. This must be no later than one month after the first day of the leave period originally requested. The employer must then give the employee a notice setting out the reason for the postponement and the agreed new date(s) for the leave. This notice must be provided as soon as reasonably practicable, but no later than whichever is the earlier of seven days after the employee’s notice was given to the employer or before the first date in that notice.

An employee will be able to make a claim for compensation to an employment tribunal if their employer unreasonably postpones a period of carer’s leave or prevents or attempts to prevent them from taking it.

Protection from detriment and unfair dismissal

An employee will be protected from detrimental treatment by the employer due to the fact that they took, sought to take or the employer believed that they were likely to take, carer’s leave. An employee who is dismissed or selected for redundancy for these reasons will be able to claim automatic unfair dismissal.

Contractual rights 

If an employer currently provides a similar right to statutory carer’s leave, the employee is not entitled to exercise both rights separately, but is entitled to a composite of the two and to take advantage of the more favourable contractual provisions when exercising the statutory right.

Extension of redundancy protection - Pregnancy & Family Leave

In July 2019, the Government published its response to consultation on extending redundancy protection for women and new parents.

Women on maternity leave (as well as those on adoption and shared parental leave) already have special protection in a redundancy situation, meaning that employers have an obligation to offer suitable alternative employment where it exists, in preference to others at risk of redundancy.

Summary of changes:

Schools will want to be particularly mindful of the impact these changes could have on any imminent redundancy exercises.

Last updated: 21st February 2023

  Relevance: All settings 

The weekly rates that will apply from 7th April 2024 to statutory maternity, paternity, shared parental, adoption and bereavement pay, as well as statutory sick pay are as follows:

Changes to TUPE consultation requirements for transfers taking place on or after 1 July 2024.

TUPE consultation requirements, currently, there is a requirement to elect employee representatives for consultation on a TUPE transfer where appropriate representatives are not in place already & businesses cannot consult employees directly about TUPE transfers. The consultation confirms that this requirement will be removed in certain circumstances.  Firstly where the business has fewer than 50 employees, this is irrespective of the size of the transfer and effectively extends the current exception for micro-businesses with fewer than 10 employees.  Secondly, there will be no need to elect TUPE representatives where the proposed transfer involves fewer than 10 employees, again this will be irrespective of the size of the business.

Last updated: 21st March 2023

Changes to workplace discrimination laws will follow the introduction of the Worker Protection (Amendment of Equality Act 2010) Bill , a Private Member’s Bill that was passed on 26 October 2023. Its main provisions will come into force a year later on 26 October 2024. This Bill places a proactive duty on employers to take reasonable steps to prevent harassment of their employees, with the possibility of increased compensation if they fail to do so.

Last updated: 28th March 2024

The Neonatal Care 

 On 25th May 2023 Royal Assent was received for The Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Act.

The government confirmed its response in March 2020 to the consultation on neonatal leave and pay conducted in 2019. The stated intention in December 2020 was to introduce a statutory leave entitlement for parents of babies in neonatal care (and pay, subject to qualifying conditions) in "the forthcoming Employment Bill". The Employment Bill was not subsequently announced in the Queen's speech in May 2021 and therefore the future of this proposal currently remains uncertain.

In October 2022 the Government confirmed that it backs the Neonatal Care (Leave and Pay) Bill, which was introduced to Parliament on 15 July 2022. The Bill, when enacted, will allow parents to take up to 12 weeks' paid leave if their baby requires neonatal care after birth. 

Expected to be implemented in April 2025.

Last updated: 21st March 2023

The Fertility Treatment ( Employment Rights) Bill was introduced to the House of Commons in November 2022.  It requires employers to allow employees a statutory right to take time off from work for appointments for fertility treatment. The Bill also allows an employee who has a “qualifying relationship” with a person receiving fertility treatment to take unpaid time off work to accompany the person to the appointments. 

An employee would have the right not to be subjected to any detriment by any act, or any deliberate failure to act, by their employer in connection with their right to take time off work to attend fertility treatment appointments. If an employee is dismissed for attending these appointments, it would be regarded as an unfair dismissal.

Several large UK employers have signed the Pledge which means they will:

• Implement a workplace fertility policy to increase transparency and reduce the stigma surrounding fertility issues;
• Appoint a fertility ambassador to encourage open conversations and promote internal support;
• Provide training for line managers to improve their understanding of the physical, emotional and financial impacts of fertility treatment; and
• Give staff the right to request flexible working so that they can attend fertility clinic appointments. 

The Bill is at present in the early stages of the parliamentary process so it will likely be some time before it passes into law.

Last updated: 21st December 2023

  Relevance: All settings 

Legislation: TBC

In July 2019 the Government published its response to consultation on preventing the misuse of confidentiality clauses in the workplace. This was undertaken chiefly as a response to certain cases where employers had used such clauses to prevent victims of harassment or discrimination from speaking out. As a result, the Government has committed to:

• legislating so that no provision in a confidentiality clause can prevent disclosures to the police, regulated health and care professionals and legal professionals;
• legislating so that limitations in confidentiality clauses are clearly set out in employment contracts and settlement agreements;
• producing guidance for solicitors and legal professionals responsible for drafting settlement agreements;
• legislating to enhance the independent legal advice received by individuals signing confidentiality clauses;
• enforcement measures for confidentiality clauses that do not comply with legal requirements in written statements of employment particulars and settlement agreements.

Legislation is expected as soon as “Parliamentary time allows”. Guidance has already been produced at the request of the government by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (October 2019) and ACAS (February 2020).

There have been no further updates on when, or whether, these proposals will be taken forwards. We will publish further advice when more is known.

Last updated: 1st June 2023

  Relevance: All settings 

Legislation: TBC

As part of the government’s 2018 Good Work Plan, the period of time required to break an employee’s continuous service is due to increase from one week to four weeks. The aim is to make it easier for employees who work intermittently over a period of time to access statutory rights.

We do not yet know when these proposals will be taken forwards.

Last updated: 1st June 2023

  Relevance: All settings 

Legislation: TBC

As part of the Good Work Plan, workers who undertake irregular hours who would like more certainty will be able to request a more fixed working pattern from their employer after 26 weeks of service.

The Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023  has received royal assent . The act gives workers, including agency workers and zero hours workers, the right to request more predictable terms and conditions, including the right to request a predictable working pattern.

The provisions of the Act are subject to regulations being introduced and brought into force. It is not yet known when regulations will be introduced.

Last updated: 21st December 2023

The UK government introduced the Data Protection & Digital Information (No.2) Bill (the Bill) on 8 March 2023, withdrawing the Data Protection & Digital Information Bill that was introduced in June 2022.

Post-Brexit, the Bill is intended to make the EU GDPR more practicable and less burdensome in lower-risk situations, while maintaining high data protection standards. All being well, the legislative process will culminate in a new Act sometime in the next 12 months. The final Act could well be different again, as changes are possible during its legislative passage. The key areas which the Bill intends to address are likely to remain the same and those most relevant to HR practitioners in schools include:

The Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Act 2023 received Royal Assent on 29 June 2023. The Government had previously made significant changes to its approach to the legislation, reducing the scope of the proposed reforms and the immediate impact on HR.

Any retained EU law was due to end on 31 December 2023, unless new legislation was introduced to keep it. The Government previously confirmed it will amend the Bill in order to provide more certainty for businesses.

Retained EU law will no longer automatically be revoked' at the end of this year. Instead, a new schedule lists some 600 pieces of legislation which will now be removed, including regulations on things such as air pollution, food, the environment and energy. No key pieces of employment law will be removed under the schedule.   

However, the Bill retains power that make it easier for the Government to amend any retained EU law that is not revoked. In addition, the provisions as to how previous EU case law is to be treated also remain in the Bill, which may well impact on the courts’ interpretation of  employment law in future cases.  

Last updated: 21st December 2023

The Government has published its Good Work Plan, setting out its intention to make changes to certain areas of employment law for example continuous service. This plan to increase the period between employment before continuity is broken from one week to four weeks may have a knock-on impact on the Redundancy Modification Order and employees' entitlements under the contract of employment. 

There have been no further updates on when, or whether, these proposals will be taken forwards. We will publish further advice when more is known.