UK employment law in November 2025: Unfair dismissal concession in Employment Rights Bill and legal updates for the profession

Employment Rights Bill  

Following an announcement on 27 November 2025, the UK Government made a major concession in the Employment Rights Bill.  

The UK Government announced its agreement to a six-month qualifying period for unfair dismissal. You can read more about the CIPD’s response to this announcement in our press release. This change will have a significant impact on the practical steps needed to implement the unfair dismissal changes when they are confirmed.  

Now this concession has been made, Royal Assent could progress but there are remaining areas of contention.   

At the time of writing, the other contested matters include:  

The CIPD public policy team are representing the voice of the profession across the Employment Rights Bill’s progress. Follow on Linkedin for the Policy teams’ updates on the status of each stage. 

HR1 forms digital only  

Whether you are the senior HR director in a multi-national or the leader of an SME, all employers must note a change to workflow from 1 December 2025. From this date HR1 forms are digital only. 

The forms are statutory, used when employers are proposing to make 20 or more redundancies within a 90-day period at one establishment. It is a legal requirement to submit this form to government to notify it of this intent. If forms are not submitted, the corrective action can be serious; criminal prosecution of the company and/or potentially a personal liability for any directors. 

As of 1 December 2025:  

• You can no longer submit a HR1 form by email or post. Instead, you must use this form online. 
• You will need to be conscious that the new digital form contains additional fields that you need to populate. Notably:  
• The form will not accept consultation dates in the future i.e. the form must be submitted when consultation is imminent or underway. 
• There is an additional new redundancy reason: ‘Change in supply chain/loss of supply chain contract’. 
• A declaration at the end of the form requires employers to confirm that they have given copies of the form to all trade union and elected representatives. 

Please see FAQs on the form on the government website. The CIPD provide member guidance on managing the redundancy process.  

Keep Britain Working report suggestions

When the Keep Britain Working report was published this month, its purpose was to shine a light on the rise in sickness absence and ill health across the UK workforce. 

Sir Charlie Mayfield, the report's lead reviewer, encourages employers to use the findings to open up conversations and reduce fear around these issues. The report offers several practical suggestions for employers: 

Build a culture of safety 

Encourage early, open sharing of concerns about health and wellbeing. This helps you identify issues sooner and contribute to prevention, rather than reacting when problems become more serious. The report highlights that support for sickness absence varies widely across organisations, so building a consistent, safe environment is vital. 

Create inclusive workplaces 

The report outlines several actions employers can take to improve inclusion. These include: 

Monitor the government’s vanguard trials 
There are currently 60 vanguards testing new ways to reduce economic inactivity. Their findings are expected to feed into future policy and will be shared through the proposed Workplace Health Intelligence Unit (WHIU). 

Review your use of support systems 
Government incentives and tools such as welfare support, fit notes, Access to Work, and dispute resolution processes are under review. Consider how you currently use these systems and where they could better support employees. 

Consider the Health Working Lifecycle model 

The report recommends this model as a way to reframe how organisations support people throughout their working lives, particularly around health and work challenges. 

Strengthen your data insights 

It may be helpful to review how you track key absence information. This could include monitoring long-term sickness, disability retention, and return-to-work timelines, so you can spot trends and improve decision-making.