The government has, as promised, published its hotly anticipated Employment Rights Bill (the Bill) within the first 100 days of the new Parliament. Our table sets out the key measures the Bill contains, the likely impact these measures will have on employers and some suggestions for actions that businesses should consider taking now. Unsurprisingly, the Bill and associated publications do not contain any indication of timescales at this stage, but we will update you through our PRM hub on important developments. Many measures will need secondary legislation, meaning it is likely to take longer to bring them into force. The government has indicated that the majority of the reforms will not take effect before 2026 and the unfair dismissal reforms will take effect no sooner than autumn 2026.

Parliamentary process

It would usually take six to nine months for a Bill of this size to make its way through both Houses of Parliament. Along the way there will be several "readings" of the Bill, including debates on the Bill as a whole, and a committee stage, which involves line-by-line scrutiny. Both the House of Commons and the House of Lords vote on the Bill at different stages but, given the government's majority, we do not expect any difficulty with the Bill passing these votes. Once both Houses have passed the Bill, it then goes to the King for Royal Assent – this is the final stage, which transforms the Bill into an Act of Parliament. That does not necessarily mean it comes into force immediately. Often a Minister will have to issue a commencement order or the Act may state that certain of its provisions come into force on a specified date (e.g. a year after the Act receives Royal Assent).

As we have mentioned, some of the measures will require secondary legislation, which means a statutory instrument setting out the nuts and bolts about key details such as eligibility and how a new right will work in practice. Parliament does not scrutinise secondary legislation in the same way as it does Bills, so this process does not take as long. Nonetheless, it will take time for the government to draft and publish appropriate secondary legislation, which will lead to a longer lead time before these measures come into effect. As noted above, the government anticipates that most of the reforms will not take effect before 2026 and the unfair dismissal reforms will not take effect until at least autumn 2026.

Next Steps

The government has published a Next Steps paper alongside the Bill with commentary on the Bill and details of reforms it intends to implement in the future. These include:

• launching a Call for Evidence on unpaid internships;
• implementing a right to switch off through a statutory Code of Practice;
• establishing a working group on the use of secure electronic balloting for trade union statutory ballots;
• introducing an Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, which would introduce mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting for large employers;
• consulting on a single status of worker and a simpler two-part framework for employment status;
• launching a Call for Evidence to examine a variety of issues relating to TUPE regulations and related processes;
• consulting with Acas on enabling employees to raise collective grievances about conduct in their place of work;
• reviewing health and safety guidance and regulations; and
• reviewing the parental leave and carers' leave systems.

Key takeaways

While the government's plans are still at an early stage, you might want to carry out an audit to assess which policies and contractual terms you will need to keep under review and update in due course. Given how much change is afoot, you may want to start considering how you will accommodate the changes, particularly when it comes to aligning employees' need for certainty and the business' need for flexibility.