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 […]
Increase in Immigration Skills Charge from 16 Dec 2025
Immigration Skills Charge Increase from 16 December 2025 The Immigration Skills Charge is a mandatory fee paid by most UK employers when sponsoring overseas workers under either the Skilled Worker or the Global Business Mobility Senior or Specialist Worker visa routes. The charge is paid up front when a Certificate of Sponsorship is […]
MAC Report December 2025: Skilled Worker Visas & UK Tax
Section A: MAC Report December 2025 The Migration Advisory Committee’s report on the fiscal impact of immigration is a technical assessment of how immigration interacts with the UK’s public finances, and it is written for policymakers who increasingly justify immigration rules through economic and fiscal outcomes. For employers who rely on the Skilled […]
Unfair Dismissal Compensation Cap to be Abolished
Unfair Dismissal Compensation Cap to be Removed The government has published an amendment to the Employment Rights Bill which would remove the statutory cap on the compensatory award for ordinary unfair dismissal. The amendment deletes section 124 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, which is the provision that currently limits compensation to the […]