Employment Rights Bill nears end of parliamentary journey

The Bill’s committee stage in the House of Lords ended on 24 June after 10 days of sittings, during which hundreds of amendments were considered. The amended Bill has been published here.

The amendments made by the House of Lords were mostly of a technical nature, and much more limited than the amendments put forward by the Government in the Commons (see our previous posting here). That is reflected in the relatively modest growth in the length of the Bill – now 318 pages long, compared to 310 pages when it reached the House of Lords.

The report stage is scheduled for 14 and 16 July. After that only the third reading remains before the Bill returns to the Commons for the Lords’ amendments to be considered. So its long Parliamentary journey is almost over, and we can expect the Bill to become an Act soon. Since Parliament’s summer recess starts on 22 July, it is unlikely that the Bill will receive Royal Assent (and become an Act of Parliament) before the early autumn.

However, most provisions in the Bill won’t take effect on Royal Assent. The repeals of the last Government’s legislation on industrial action ballots will take effect two months after Royal Assent, but most other provisions will need regulations to flesh out the detail, and to specify when they come into force.

We still don’t have a detailed implementation timetable, although more information is promised on this soon. It seems likely that it will be the late autumn before the first round of consultation on the enabling regulations begins, which will give us a better idea of what is in store in 2026. 

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