Home Office to Reform UK Immigration & Asylum Appeals
Proposals to reform UK immigration & asylum appeals system The proposal is to abolish the current First-tier Tribunal (Immigration and Asylum Chamber) as the primary forum for asylum and immigration appeals and to replace it with a new appeals body. The new body would hear asylum appeals and, according to the Home Secretary’s […]
Paternity Leave 2026 Reforms: HR Risks
What Changes Under the 2026 Regulations and When They Apply Under the Employment Rights Act 2025 (Parental and Paternity Leave) (Removal of Qualifying Periods etc.) (Consequential Amendments) Regulations 2026, qualifying service requirements that previously applied to statutory paternity leave and unpaid parental leave are being removed. The changes take effect in stages. From […]
Zero-Hour Contract Changes 2026
What changed to zero-hours working rules in January 2026 Two linked changes came into force on 6 January 2026 under the Employment Rights Act 2025 and the first commencement regulations. First, the Workers (Predictable Terms and Conditions) Act 2023 was repealed. That removes a statutory framework that many employers had only recently factored […]
April 2026: ERA 2025 Changes
Section A: Employment Rights Act 2025 – April 2026 employer update The Government’s phased implementation of the Employment Rights Act 2025 enters a major operational phase in April 2026. While some headline reforms, including changes to unfair dismissal qualifying service, have been deferred until 2027, the April 2026 changes will materially affect sickness […]
UK Digital ID Card: Not Compulsary for Right to Work Checks
Digital ID plans revised – what has changed The government has now stepped back from its earlier position that workers would be required to sign up to a mandatory digital ID in order to work in the UK. While ministers initially framed digital ID as a hard requirement for employment, the revised position […]
Immigration Enforcement Activity at Record Levels: Employer Impact
Home Office Boasts of Record Enforcement Activity The Home Office has published a press release, reporting immigration enforcement activity to be at record levels in the UK. Between July 2024 and the end of December 2025, raids increased by 77 percent and arrests rose by 83 percent. More than 17,400 enforcement visits were […]
Migrants’ English Language Requirement Raised for UK Work Visas
Changes to Migrants’ English Language Requirement Under revised Immigration Rules, applicants seeking an initial grant of permission under the Skilled Worker, High Potential Individual (HPI) and Scale-up visa routes on or after 8 January 2026 are required to meet a higher English language standard of B2 under the Common European Framework of Reference […]
UK Immigration Changes 2026: Employer Guide
8 January 2026: Higher English Language Threshold From 8 January 2026, the English language threshold for first time applicants under Skilled Worker, Scale up and High Potential Individual is expected to increase from B1 to B2. Transitional treatment generally turns on the date the application is submitted, so late submission can shift a […]
Employment Case Law Update 2025 Round Up
Higgs v Farmor’s School February 2025 In Higgs v Farmor’s School, Kristie Higgs, a Christian pastoral administrator at Farmor’s School in Gloucestershire, was dismissed for gross misconduct in 2019 after sharing Facebook posts critical of LGBTQ+ relationship education in primary schools. Her posts, shared on her personal account, expressed concerns about teaching “gender […]
Employment Rights Bill Clears Lords Stage
Employment Rights Bill Clears House of Lords With the Lords now allowing the Employment Rights Bill to proceed, the focus shifts away from whether the reforms happen and toward when they take effect, how they are staged and how the government chooses to ‘operationalise’ them. Employers should assume therefore that 2026 will bring […]