Twelve-month Legal Timeline

March 2026

• Employment Rights Act 1996 (Application of Section 80B to Adoptions from Overseas) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 amends Section 80B of the Employment Rights Act (ERA) 1996 to reflect the changes made in Section 1 of the Paternity Leave (Bereavement) Act 2024 and the Employment Rights Act 2025. This extends the right to paternity leave to the adopter’s partner in overseas adoption cases where the adopter dies and the child also dies or, having been placed for adoption, is returned. The Regulations come into force on 10 March 2026.
• The ACAS Consultation on updates to its Code of Practice on time off for trade union duties and activities to reflect new statutory rights introduced by ERA 2025 closes at 5pm on 17th March 2026.

April 2026

• From 1st April, tax advisers who interact with HMRC on behalf of clients must register with HMRC and meet minimum standards. The changes will improve HMRC's ability to monitor and exclude tax advisers who are objectively unable to meet HMRC's Standards for Agents or cannot lawfully act as a tax adviser. Mandatory registration starts 1 April 2026, with at least a three-month transition period. Further information can be found here. 
• From April 2027, the reporting process for most Benefits in Kind and expenses will be through the Full Payment Submission (FPS) through Real Time Information. Employers can choose to voluntarily payroll benefits in kind (except for employment related loans and accommodation) for the 2026-2027 tax year, as a way of testing payroll systems and internal processes ahead of the mandatory change. The deadline to register for voluntary payrolling is 5^th April 2026. Further information can be found here. 
• From 6th April 2026, agencies with a direct contractual relationship with end-user clients who use umbrella companies will become strictly liable to HMRC for shortfalls in the PAYE on umbrella company workers’ pay. This will be the case even if the umbrella company employs the worker and the shortfall is down to them. Strict liability means that HMRC only needs to identify a PAYE shortfall for an agency to be liable. This means that it will not be possible for agencies to raise a defence against liability, and HMRC will not consider any steps an agency took to ensure that an umbrella company they were using was making the correct PAYE payments to HMRC through due diligence checks. Whilst the wording joint and several liability is used in the draft legislation on these measures, HMRC has made it clear that it will pursue the party with the direct contractual relationship with the end-user client for liability and this is usually the agency. More information can be found on our Umbrella Company Hub here.
• The following measures contained in the Employment Rights Bill will take effect in April 2026 (see the Roadmap on Implementing the Employment Rights Bill):
  • Collective redundancy protective award – doubling the maximum period of the protective award
  • 'Day 1' Paternity Leave and Unpaid Parental Leave
  • Whistleblowing protections
  • Fair Work Agency body established
  • Statutory Sick Pay – remove the Lower Earnings Limit and waiting period
  • Simplifying trade union recognition process
  • Electronic and workplace balloting
• From April 2026, under the Social Security Benefits Up-rating Order 2026 the following rates are due to change:
  • the rate of Statutory Sick Pay will increase from £118.75 to £123.25 to per week with effect from 6 April 2026
  • the rates of Statutory Maternity Pay, Statutory Paternity Pay, Statutory Adoption Pay, Statutory Shared Parental Pay, Statutory Parental Bereavement Pay and Statutory Neonatal Care Pay will increase from £187.18 to £194.32 per week with effect from 5 April 2026
  • the rate of Maternity Allowance will increase from £187.18 to £194.32 per week with effect from 6 April 2026.
• The Social Security (Contributions) (Rates, Limits and Thresholds Amendments, National Insurance Funds Payments and Extension of Veteran's Relief) Regulations 2026 is due to come into force on 6th April 2026. These draft Regulations give effect to the annual re-rating of various National Insurance contributions (NICs) rates, limits and thresholds for the purposes of calculating Class 1, Class 2, Class 3 and Class 4 NICs liability (or voluntary payment) for the tax year beginning 6 April 2026. They also extend the availability of the zero-rate relief on secondary Class 1 contributions for employers of qualifying veterans for the tax years 2026–27 and 2027–28.
• The Employment Rights Act 2025 (Minimum Service Levels) (Consequential Revocation) Regulations 2026 comes into force on 6th April 2026, which revokes the Code of Practice on Reasonable Steps to be taken by a Trade Union (Minimum Service Levels), following the repeal of the Strikes (Minimum Strikes Levels) Act 2023 and the related amendments made by the Employment Rights Act 2025 to the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (TULR(C)A 1992).

May 2026

• The Office of the Whistleblower Bill was introduced for its first reading in the House of Commons on December 2024. The second reading of the Bill is scheduled to take place on May 2026. The main objective, as reflected in the long title of the Bill, is to establish an independent office of the whistleblower (OWB), to protect whistleblowers and whistleblowing. The OWB will also be empowered to set, monitor and enforce minimum standards for the management of whistleblowing cases. This will include establishing standards for handling protected disclosures, providing independent disclosure and advice services, conducting whistleblowing investigations, and ordering redress of detriment, which may be suffered by whistleblowers.

June 2026

Currently no activity.