GB
.png)
If you’re growing a business, there’s usually plenty competing for your attention. Keeping track of employment law changes can easily slip down the list, particularly when different rules come into force on different dates.
Whether you’re a founder making your next few hires or an HR team supporting a growing workforce, the October 2026 employment law changes are a good reason to review your contracts, policies and onboarding processes.
We’ve pulled together the key changes, with a closer look at right to work checks and the practical steps founders and leadership teams should consider.
You probably already have right to work checks built into your employee onboarding process. But if that process starts and ends with people on your payroll, it’s worth taking another look.
From 1st October 2026, the updated Home Office right to work scheme covers a wider range of working arrangements, including workers’ contracts, individual subcontractors and certain online matching services.
There are also circumstances where responsibility can extend beyond the business contracting directly with the person doing the work, including certain subcontracting chains and arrangements allowing someone to send a substitute.
For businesses working with a mix of employees, contractors and service providers, that makes understanding your employer right to work obligations particularly important.
There are important distinctions here.
The Home Office’s updated code of practice explains that independent businesses contracting directly with their own clients or customers are generally outside the expanded scheme. Simply buying a service does not automatically make you responsible for checking everyone involved in delivering it.
The expanded civil penalty provisions apply to newly covered engagements beginning on or after 1st October 2026.
The starting point is therefore to understand the arrangement itself. Calling someone a “freelancer” or “consultant” won’t, on its own, tell you whether the rules apply.
Start with a straightforward question: who is carrying out work for your business, and how are they engaged?
Look beyond your employee list and review the arrangements you use to bring in additional support. Where they fall within the expanded scheme, make sure responsibility for checks is clear.
For example, if your business agrees to deliver services to a client and then subcontracts part of that work, you should review whether the extended liability rules apply.
A useful review should cover:
The Home Office’s employer guide includes examples to help businesses work through different arrangements. Your review should consider both the contract and how things operate day to day.
If you’re unsure which arrangements are covered, employment and immigration law advice can help you establish who needs checking, where responsibility sits and what your onboarding process should cover.
Having a check on your onboarding list is a good start. Completing it correctly is what gives your business protection.
For relevant hires, use the appropriate prescribed checking method. Where someone holds an eVisa, that means using the Home Office’s employer-facing online checking service. Looking at the individual’s own immigration account or a screenshot they have sent you is insufficient.
Make sure anyone involved in recruitment knows which process to follow and when to ask for help.
Under the government’s updated implementation timetable, employment tribunal claim time limits increased from three to six months on 1st October 2026. The equivalent change for Scottish breach of employment contract claims follows on 9th November 2026.
Individual deadlines still need careful calculation, including the effect of Acas early conciliation.
For employers, the practical takeaway is that a claim may arrive much further down the line, when the people involved have moved on or the details are less fresh, potentially 10-12 months after the relevant events.
That makes good records eessential. Keep clear notes of recruitment decisions, performance conversations, grievances, disciplinary investigations and the reasons behind decisions. If a dispute arises, make sure relevant evidence is preserved, alongside your data protection obligations. Review your data retention practices to ensure you are keeping relevant records for at least a year and update your privacy notices to reflect this.
A short, factual note made at the time can save a lot of piecing things together later.
From 30th October 2026, employers must take all reasonable steps to prevent sexual harassment. The October reforms also introduce protections against third-party harassment at work, including harassment by customers, clients and suppliers.
As a minimum you will need to evidence that you have a detailed risk assessment in place identifying all foreseeable areas of harassment risk and the steps you have put in place to mitigate these. These steps are highly likely to include regular appropriate training, an anti-harassment policy, contractual expectations with third parties and a clear process for raising and investigating concerns. For some workplaces there may well be many more steps that will be appropriate.
For a growing business, this is a good opportunity to look at whether your approach works in practice.
Think about where your team spends time: client meetings, conferences, work socials and online conversations. Do people know how to raise a concern? Do managers know what to do when someone does? Would an employee feel supported if their complaint involved an important customer?
Useful steps include reviewing the risks your team faces, refreshing training and making reporting routes easy to find and use. A workplace harassment policy review can also help you identify gaps between what your handbook says and what happens in practice.
You may already have a policy covering much of this. The next question is whether your team knows about it and feels confident using it.
Further trade union reforms take effect on 30th October 2026. These include stronger access rights, changes to recognition processes, new rights and protections for representatives, and protections against detriment connected with industrial action.
The separate duty to inform workers of their right to join a trade union is scheduled for January 2027.
If your business has never dealt with a union, this may feel a little removed from day-to-day life. It’s still sensible to make sure managers know who to speak to if an approach comes in.
Give your team a clear escalation route and take advice before responding to an access or recognition request.
You don’t need to overhaul every people process in one afternoon. Start by giving each area an owner and checking the processes your team actually uses.
Review your onboarding and contractor arrangements, check that managers know how to handle concerns, and make sure important decisions are properly recorded. An employment contract and policy review can help you work out what needs updating first.
Putting those foundations in place now will make them easier to maintain as your team grows.
Looking for employment law support for your startup or scale-up? Our employment team helps founders and HR teams review contracts, contractor arrangements and workplace policies, and work through the people questions that come with a growing business. If these changes have left you wondering what needs updating, let’s talk.
