Bringing the provisions of the Employment Rights Act 2025 into force is a complicated process. The Act itself is merely a starting point - from it, a huge amount of secondary legislation needs to be created to bring it to life and that takes a significant amount of time.

That’s why it is being implemented in stages, with many notable reforms coming in on 6 April 2026, then others later in the year in October 2026 and more in 2027, notably changes to probationary periods with a new six-month cap from January 2027, which will affect hirings this autumn. There will also be more supporting and transitional changes being brought into law as and when needed.