Further reforms under the Employment Rights Act 2025 (“ERA 2025”) are due to take effect in October 2026, including the extension to employment tribunal time limits, which comes into force on 1 October 2026.

Below we summarise the key changes, implications and what steps employers should take.  

What is the current position?

Currently, for the majority of employment tribunal claims, claimants must present their claim to an employment tribunal within a three-month time limit.

What will be the case from 1 October 2026?

From 1 October 2026, the time limit for claimants to present the majority of employment tribunal claims will double to six months. As a result, where the date of the alleged act or failure (or where there is a series of acts or failures, the last in that series) falls on or after 1 October 2026, the claimant will have six months to present a claim. 

Claims based on acts or failures arising wholly before 1 October 2026 will remain subject to a three-month time limit.

It should be noted that the rules on ‘stopping the clock’ for Acas early conciliation (“EC”) and the tribunal’s existing power to extend time in appropriate cases will not be impacted by the reforms. 

So what for employers?

These reforms, coupled with the extended 12-week Acas EC period which has been effective from 1 December 2025, will significantly increase the overall time period claimants will have to present a claim.

As discussed in our previous article (Acas early conciliation extended: Key changes for employers), early conciliation ‘stops the clock’ on the time limit counting down, meaning that a claimant could start EC late in the six-month time period, run the full 12 weeks of conciliation and still have a further month once an EC certificate is issued to present their claim. As a result, the overall time limit for bringing a claim could stretch to nine or ten months.

This will mean that employers will have to respond to allegations that took place some nine or ten months ago (possibly longer in cases where there has been a continuing act). Further, given the existing tribunal backlog, employers may be responding to a claim potentially 12 months after the allegations complained of, with a final hearing listed three (or more) years after the allegations took place. 

Consequently, employers should: 

• Preserve documents: Ensure that policies and processes adopted by HR teams provide for the preservation and retention of relevant documents. In particular, many employers’ data retention policies will provide that employees’ HR-related documents are retained for a period of three months after the employee’s employment ends (i.e. in accordance with the existing time limit for making a claim). Employers should review their data retention policies and inform HR teams of the impact the extended time limit will have on retention and storage processes; and
• Preserve witness evidence: As any final hearing will likely be listed years after the alleged incidents took place, employers should take steps to safeguard against witnesses’ fading memories and the possibility that witnesses may no longer be employed by the employer at the time of the hearing. The solution for prudent employers is to actively engage with key witnesses at the outset (especially in cases where a claim is foreseen) and take steps to secure the continued assistance of witnesses should they leave the employer’s employment before the final hearing. 

How can we help?

If you would like to discuss how our team of experienced employment lawyers can support your organisation, please get in touch. You can also find further resources on all things ERA 2025 on our ERA 2025 hub.