Fire and rehire implementation delayed

Implementation of the fire and rehire provisions of the Employment Rights Act 2025 has been delayed until January 2027.

The Department for Business and Trade has published an updated timeline for when various provisions of the 2025 Act will come into force. The stand-out change is that instead of the expected start date of October 2026, the fire and rehire provisions will instead now come into force in January 2027 (at the same time as the reduction of the unfair dismissal qualifying period and the removal of the compensatory award cap).

Apart from this change, the updated timeline confirms that the majority of the Act will be brought into force according to the government’s original timetable.