Consultation on areas of the Employment Rights Bill (ERB)
Since before the 2024 general election, the Labour Party’s plans for changes to employment law have seen strong interest from our members, many of whom will be at the frontline of implementing these changes now Labour is in government.
Following the election, the government was quick to recognise the CIPD as a key stakeholder for this legislation, holding its first tripartite meeting with trade unions and employer organisations in August last year. We have since had the opportunity to put forward member views, and share our research and expertise, directly with ministers, MPs and civil servants working on the bill. Since the start of 2025, we’ve already met with the Minister for Employment Rights Justin Madders to discuss some of our concerns and have engaged in a number of roundtable discussions with civil servants on policy detail.
We have now also had the third reading of the bill in the House of Commons and seen the results of last year’s government consultations. This includes amendments to the bill that give more detail on areas like fire and rehire and how the government intends to regulate to restrict zero-hours contracts for agency workers.
The bill is now in the House of Lords and will receive its second reading on 27 March. Over the coming months, we’ll continue to engage with government and relevant members of the House of Lords, to push for clarity and consultation on key areas of concern and a clear implementation plan. CIPD members can find out more on what to look out for in our employment law tracker.
Supporting people into work: ‘Get Britain Working’ and ‘Keep Britain Working’
The government has also been very active in looking at how it can better support more people into work, with a focus on young people and people with health conditions or disabilities. This began with the launch of its Get Britain Working white paper last year and is continuing with the Keep Britain Working review, led by former John Lewis boss Charlie Mayfield.
We’ve spoken directly with Employment Minister Alison McGovern and Charlie Mayfield on this agenda and have fed into the early stages of the Keep Britain Working review. Most recently we joined Secretary of State Liz Kendall at the launch of the initial phase of the review, where we highlighted the role of the HR profession and key areas the government can look at to help support more people into work.
Our recent parliamentary event on women’s health, where we were joined by Shadow Minister for Women Mims Davies MP and Sarah Owen MP, Chair of the Women and Equalities Committee, also highlighted how women in particular can be better supported to stay in work longer.
Skills and Apprenticeship Levy reform
The UK Government’s approach to skills has a number of different elements, including:
- the creation of Skills England
- Apprenticeship Levy reform
- greater devolution
- the Get Britain Working agenda.
The CIPD had the opportunity to meet with Skills Minister Baroness Smith shortly after her appointment last year and we’ve engaged with civil servants at the Department for Education and the Department for Work and Pensions on several of the government’s areas of focus. We’ve also brought together roundtable discussions between civil servants and the CIPD’s policy forum members to discuss some of the detailed policy on apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeship training.
Additionally, we recently co-sponsored a short report with the Youth Futures Foundation in advance of our joint skills forum event, to examine some of the key areas of skills policy the government needs to develop. We are still awaiting more details on Apprenticeship Levy reform and are pushing for the government to implement a full apprenticeship guarantee to better support young people into work and training.
AI opportunities action plan
We have been engaging with a range of different policy-makers on AI for some time but the launch of the government’s AI opportunities action plan earlier this year has lent new impetus to our engagement with government on the issue.
Since the start of the year we have met with civil servants in the department to look at where we can support work to improve AI adoption and exploring where we could best collaborate. We also recently attended a roundtable with Feryal Clark MP, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for AI and Digital Government, where we were able to discuss upskilling and reskilling as well as wider government priorities, including AI adoption.
Policy areas the CIPD will be focusing on next
These big government agendas will continue to be a priority for the CIPD to engage on and inform, alongside the government’s industrial strategy plans and the Chancellor’s three-year Spending Review in June. With the Employment Rights Bill likely to pass into law in the second half of this year, pushing for more detail on implementation and informing consultations on any secondary legislation will then become a greater focus. We’ll also continue to look at the impact of rises in the National Living Wage and other costs on business through our regular surveys and we’ll be engaging with the detail of the draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill to inform proposed changes and better understand how new laws might work in practice.
