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The Department for Business and Trade is asking for views on options to reform the law on non-compete clauses.

Rather than a formal consultation, a working paper invites views on options to reform non-compete clauses in employment contracts. It closes for responses by 18 February 2026. (In response to a 2020 consultation, the previous government announced in 2023 that certain measures would be taken to reform the law in this area, but no action was actually taken.)

Through reforming the law on non-competes, the government is seeking to advance the following objectives:

• boosting labour market dynamism by making it easier for workers to move jobs or build their own start-up business
• reducing barriers to recruitment so that high productivity, innovative businesses, particularly scale-ups at critical stages of growth, can access the talent they need
• promoting competition and innovation by maximising opportunities for the most talented innovators, experts and entrepreneurs
• protecting workers so that they do not have to face extended periods of time out of the labour market in their area of expertise, often as long as 6 to 12 months, unable to afford the financial burden of challenging a non-compete clause in the courts – or so that they can afford to move job in the first place

The working paper lays out certain options for reform (along with a brief discussion of the pros and cons of each), including:

• imposing a statutory limit on the length of non-compete clauses
• imposing a statutory limit of on the length of non-compete clauses according to company size
• a complete ban on non-compete clauses
• banning non-compete clauses below a salary threshold, and
• combining a ban below a salary threshold and a statutory limit of 3 months