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, heading into 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. Several non-Governmental amendments have been agreed at Report Stage in the House of Lords, which was perhaps not unexpected given the House of Lords has a Conservative majority. The bill will return to the House of Commons for consideration of amendments, which could be accepted, modified or rejected, potentially leading to ‘ping pong’ between the two Houses until the final wording is agreed. Since some non-Governmental amendments relate to manifesto commitments or introduce new concepts, it is unlikely that these will make it into the final text of the bill – but we wait to see how this plays out. We have included references to key new non-Governmental amendments for completeness.
Given these developments, the Employment Rights Bill is now expected to pass in Autumn 2025. But for many reforms, the Employment Rights Bill 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.
- Additional reforms are promised via the 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) Bill became law on 19 June 2025 and is now the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 (‘DUA Act‘). This 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 the Data Privacy and AI page of this hub. The DUA Act, however, is not included in the Timings part of this reform hub.