The Employment Rights Bill: Is it here yet?

04 July 2025

Claire Rosney and Emma Capper

This update provides an overview of the current status of the Employment Rights Bill, its next steps, and the key issues that employers need to know.

Back in October the government unveiled its Employment Rights Bill. In total the Bill sets out 28 employment law reforms and represents the most comprehensive overhaul of employment law for decades.

However, we’re now in July, so where are things up to, what happens next and when will the Bill become law?

What is the current stage of the Employment Rights Bill?

The Bill is at Report Stage in the House of Lords, which is broadly the final opportunity for amendments to be proposed. The Report Stage is due to commence on 14 July 2025.

Following Report Stage the Bill will have its Third Reading in the House of Lords before passing back to the House of Commons for consideration of the Lord’s amendments. It will then receive Royal Assent and become law.

However, given the House of Commons breaks for summer recess on 22 July 2025 until 1 September 2025, it is unlikely to receive Royal Assent before the end of September / beginning of October.

What happens when the Employment Rights Bill gets Royal Assent: Do all the changes come into effect straightaway?

In short, no. Relatively few of the provisions in the Bill will come into force upon it receiving Royal Assent or shortly after. Most of the changes require commencement regulations to bring them into force, and many require further substantive regulations, together with associated consultation before they can be brought into effect.

When will the Employment Rights Bill changes take effect?

The Employment Rights Bill is anticipated to receive Royal Assent and be enacted into law around July 2025. However, given that consultation and further regulations are required, most of the changes will take months and years before they take effect.

In light of this, the government has released an implementation roadmap that sets out a timeline for implementation of the Bill’s measures.

The government has also committed to guidance to support employers and Statutory Codes of Practice may need to be updated / developed, all of which will take time. Therefore, the only measures which will take effect upon Royal Assent or soon after are:

Repeal of the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act 2023.
Repeal of the great majority of the Trade Union Act 2016 (some provisions will be repealed via commencement order at a later date).
Removing the 10 year ballot requirement for trade union political funds.
Simplifying industrial action notices and industrial action ballot notices.
Protections against dismissal for taking industrial action.

In respect of the rest of the measures in the Bill, the roadmap confirms that a phasing approach will be taken to both the consultations and implementation. Consultations will take place in three phases:

summer / autumn 2025;
autumn 2025 and
winter 2026 / early 2026.

At this point we will start to see more detail as to how it’s proposed that the new laws will work in practice. Implementation of the new measures will also be in phases namely:

April 2026;
October 2026 and
2027, although crucially no guidance is given as to *when* in 2027.

However, the government has committed to common commencement dates for most of the regulations in the Bill, namely 6 April and 1 October. It’s also worth noting that given the extensive consultation planned by the government, the timetable may slip.

What are the key Employment Rights Bill measures and when will these changes happen?

In our view the changes that most employers are interested in and keen to see the detail of, are the following:

Measure	Consultation	Takes effect
Fair Works Agency	No consultation planned.	April 2026 (establishment of the Fair Works Agency)
Protection from harassment	No consultation proposed.	April 2026 (sexual harassment added to the list of qualifying disclosures in respect of whistleblowing complaints). October 2026 (employers' duty to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment and protection from harassment by third parties). 2027 (to make regulations specifying what steps are to be regarded as “reasonable”, to determine whether an employer has taken all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment).
Day 1 unfair dismissal rights	Commences in summer / autumn 2025.	2027
Fire and rehire	Commences in autumn 2025.	October 2026
Zero / Low hours contracts	Commences in autumn 2025.	2027
TU reform	Autumn 2026 (a package of reforms including electronic balloting and workplace balloting; simplification of the recognition process; duty to inform workers of their right to join a trade union and right of access). Winter 2026 / early 2026 (measures including protection against detriments for taking industrial action and blacklisting).	April 2026 (simplifying the trade union recognition process). October 2026 (right to join a trade union; right of access; new rights and protections for trade union reps; extending protections against detriments for taking industrial action). 2027 (blacklisting; industrial relations framework).
Collective redundancies	Commences in winter 2026 / early 2026.	April 2026 (doubling of the maximum period of a protective award). 2027 (changes to collective consultation threshold).

The other notable change is the extension to Employment Tribunal time limits, which will take effect in October 2026.

What steps should employers be taking?

Employers should start thinking about which of their policies and practices may be impacted by the measures in the Employment Rights Bill and what changes may be needed.

However, the final detail of the secondary legislation may be impacted by the responses to the various consultations and therefore things could still be subject to change.

We’ll be keeping a close eye on how things progress and will release further updates as and when we know more. In the meantime, if you’d like to discuss any of the Bill’s provisions or how we can assist your organisation to prepare, please get in touch.