Employment Rights Bill
Described as phase one of the Plan to Make Work Pay, the Employment Rights Bill was published on 10 October 2024. To read an overview of our take of it in its original form, please see our article here.
The Employment Rights Bill is making its way through Parliament and is in its final stages. Significant amendments have been made along the way and it has now almost doubled in size since its first iteration. For our thoughts on the Government amendments made to the Bill on 5 March 2025 please see here and for those made on 7 July 2025, please see here.
The House of Lords considered amendments to the Employment Rights Bill on Tuesday 28 October 2025. However, following several Government defeats, it returned to the House of Commons on 5 November 2025, who considered and voted down key amendments made by the House of Lords and suggested amendments in lieu on a couple of areas. The Employment Rights Bill must now return to the House of Lords for further consideration. This process is known as “ping pong”, where a bill bounces back and forth between the two Houses until the final wording is agreed. The Employment Rights Bill will only go on to receive “Royal Assent” and become law once it has completed these final stages in Parliament, which is anticipated very soon.
However, once the Employment Rights Bill passes, for many reforms it simply provides the framework, with much of the detail still to be fleshed out by secondary legislation, codes of practice and guidance.
Other employment reforms beyond the Employment Rights Bill
Reforms are also underway or anticipated in addition to the Employment Rights Bill, as part of the Government’s plan:
- Some reforms are being delivered via existing powers, and non-legislative routes, such as changes to Minimum Wages.
- Changes in respect of pay and tax were also announced in the Autumn Budget on 30 October 2024 (and further changes could come in the Autumn Budget 2025).
- Additional reforms are promised via the draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, which is still awaited.
- Longer-term reforms (such as to worker and employment status) are also promised but the Government recognises that these will take longer to undertake and implement.
Separately, the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (‘DUA Act‘) passed on 19 June 2025, which proposes some reforms in respect of data privacy and AI that, although not necessarily linked to the Plan to Make Work Pay, may be of interest to employers. We discuss aspects of the DUA Act relevant to employers in brief in the Data Privacy and AI page. The DUA Act, however, is not included in the Timings etc part of this reform hub.
