This April is proving a particularly busy time for businesses in terms of changes, to help your business keep on top of things here’s a round-up of five key developments to have on your radar.
- Changes to family leave rights
- Changes to SSP
- Other Employment Rights Act changes
- Raises to rates and limits
- Increases to tribunal awards and other limits
1. Changes to family leave rights
In brief, 6th April sees an introduction of ‘day one’ rights to parental leave and paternity leave, the removal of the restriction preventing employees from taking paternity leave following shared parental leave and the introduction of a new right to unpaid bereaved partner’s paternity leave for eligible employees.
You can find out more about these changes in previous Legal Updates:
- Updates to Paternity Leave Policy Available
- Paternity Leave for Bereaved Partners – Further New Rights
2. Changes to SSP
In outline, from 6th April, statutory sick pay (SSP) is available to eligible employees regardless of their earnings, it is payable from the first full day of sickness absence and paid at 80% of an employee’s average weekly earnings or the prescribed weekly flat rate, whichever is lower. Be aware there are some transitional arrangements and protections in place in some circumstances, for example when a sickness absence starts before and ends on or after 6 April 2026 and the government has produced guidance on this.
3. Other Employment Rights Act changes
As you are likely already aware, the Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA 25) has, and is, bringing into force significant changes. The April changes that will be of interest to most businesses include:
- Whistleblowing – From 6th April 2026 sexual harassment has been added to the types of wrongdoing that an employee can ‘blow the whistle’ about – “that sexual harassment has occurred, is occurring or is likely to occur”. This makes the position more explicit than was previously the case
- Protective awards – The maximum protective award for failing to follow collective redundancy consultation rules has doubled from 90 to 180 days’ gross pay per affected employee. The change won’t apply to dismissals that have taken effect before 6th April 2026
- New annual leave record keeping obligations – In force from 6th April is a new duty to keep adequate records (retained for six years) to evidence compliance with the right to paid annual leave under the Working Time Regulations. Records will need to include those that evidence that workers have been notified of and allowed to take their annual statutory holiday entitlement, holiday carried over from previous holiday years, that workers have been paid the correct amount of holiday pay, that workers were correctly paid for accrued but untaken leave on termination of employment including any leave carried over from the previous holiday year. Records can be kept in a manner and format that the employer “reasonably thinks fit.” Failure to comply with the new duty will be a criminal offence, punishable with a fine.
- Establishment of the Fair Work Agency – In brief outline, the Fair Work Agency was established on 7th April, it will be a new single enforcement body intended to improve and expand the system of enforcement of employment rights. It will combine and take over existing enforcement functions (e.g NMW compliance from HMRC after a transitional period) and will in due course have new enforcement powers and functions (e.g enforcement of holiday pay).
4. Raises to rates and limits
The annual rate rises for payments such as National Minimum Wage and statutory family leave payments have also taken place.
As a reminder, the National Minimum Wage rates from 1st April 2026 (£ per hour):
- Workers aged 21 and over (National Living Wage) £12.71
- Rate for workers aged 18 – 20 £10.85
- Rate for 16- and 17-year-olds £8.00
- Rate for apprentices under 19 and those aged 19 and over in the first 12 months of their apprenticeship £8.00
5. Increases to tribunal awards and other limits
There are also increases to tribunal awards and other limits such as the annual increase to the compensatory award monetary cap for unfair dismissal, the cap on weekly pay used for matters such as calculating statutory redundancy payments and the increases to the Vento bands used to assess compensation for injury to feelings in discrimination cases.
For further information on these, please see our earlier Legal Updates:
- Changes to Compensation Limits Announced – What Does Your Business Need to Know?
- Losing a Discrimination Claim to Become More Expensive
Need help with a HR matter in your business? Please don’t hesitate to contact us as we are happy to help.