Employment Rights Bill implementation roadmap: Key dates for HR

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Author: Stephen Simpson

With the completion of the lengthy House of Lords committee stage on 24 June 2025 and the publication of the Government's implementation roadmap on 1 July 2025, the Employment Rights Bill is becoming an ever more pressing reality for HR departments. What happens next and what is the likely legislative timetable?

The committee stage in the House of Lords, which involved a line-by-line examination of the individual clauses of the Employment Rights Bill, finished on 24 June 2025.

Members of the House of Lords worked through the Bill's clauses in order, considering amendments or proposals for brand-new clauses.

The House of Lords allocated 11 days for the committee stage, which took place on various non-consecutive dates from 29 April until 24 June. This is an unusually long time for this stage, reflecting the size, scope and complexity of the Employment Rights Bill.

What happens next?

The Employment Rights Bill now moves on to the House of Lords report stage, which is the ninth of 12 stages. The report stage is the penultimate stage in the House of Lords before the Bill returns to the House of Commons.

The House of Lords report stage starts on 14 July. It is expected to be shorter than the committee stage. Generally, this stage, during which detailed examination of the Bill continues, needs half the number of days taken for the committee stage, which means that it is likely to need five or six days.

This is followed by the third reading in the House of Lords - the tenth stage overall - before the Employment Rights Bill returns to the House of Commons for:

  • final considerations of amendments; and
  • Royal Assent, at which point the Bill becomes the Employment Rights Act 2025.

What is the likely legislative timetable?

What does this all mean for HR professionals who need to prepare for the looming employment law changes contained in the Employment Rights Bill?

Parliament goes into recess in late July 2025 and does not return until early September. In addition, September is the party conference season. This will undoubtedly have an impact on how long Parliament takes to finalise the Employment Rights Bill.

Even if the House of Lords finishes with the Employment Rights Bill in July, the Bill still has to return to the House of Commons for the final two stages. This is likely to be after the summer recess.

Therefore, it looks increasingly likely that the Bill will not receive Royal Assent and become the Employment Rights Act 2025 before late September or early October 2025.

Roadmap for the implementation of individual measures

It is estimated that the Employment Rights Bill will introduce at least 28 major employment law changes. Even after the Bill receives Royal Assent, many of these measures will need public consultation followed by secondary legislation to flesh out the details. Realistically, this means that the changes will have to be introduced over a number of years before the next general election, which must take place no later than August 2029.

On 1 July 2025 the Government published a roadmap timetable, setting out its approach to consultation on and final implementation of the individual measures in the Bill. It announced that policies would take effect in phases, with common commencement dates of 6 April and 1 October.

Measures that will come into force at Royal Assent or soon after include:

Measures that will take effect in April 2026 include:

Measures that will take effect in October 2026 include:

  • making "fire and rehire" dismissals automatically unfair in most circumstances; and
  • the reintroduction of employer liability for third-party harassment and addition of the word "all" before "reasonable steps" in respect of the positive duty for employers to prevent sexual harassment.

Measures that will take effect in 2027 include:

Employment Rights Bill: How we will help HR to prepare

(1) Horizon scanning for employment law changes

  • We are constantly monitoring what is happening with upcoming legal changes and translating what is happening into practical steps that you can take to prepare.
  • We are keeping track of multiple amendments to the Employment Rights Bill made during the parliamentary process and potentially dozens of pieces of secondary legislation that will be needed.
  • After the Employment Rights Bill provisions have been introduced, they will have an impact on case law rulings for decades to come. We also monitor, and report on, developments from court and tribunal judgments.

(2) HR policy updates

(3) Implementation of HR policies and procedures

  • We are always acutely aware that your organisation can have a perfectly worded and up-to-date policy, but that it is worthless if it is not implemented properly. That is why we will have additional practical guidance on how your organisation can actually put any changes to employment law into practice.
  • In particular, we recognise the key role that line managers play on the ground, which is why we accompany our new and updated HR policies with up-to-date line manager briefings that you can use to train managers.
  • We also provide detailed "how to" guides to help HR professionals with implementation, as well as leading practice guides, which focus more on HR strategy.

(4) Day-to-day queries and firefighting

  • Once the dust has settled on the changes, our reference materials are ideal for HR professionals who need to check on something from a legal standpoint.
  • For example, it could be how to deal with a specific situation in the new post-Employment Rights Bill world, or it could be checking what someone's rights are under the new legal landscape.
  • We have several hundred detailed employment law guides and 100s of FAQs to answer all your legal questions.

(5) Research/surveys of employers

What to read and listen to next

On your radar

Legal timetable

Podcast: Employment Rights Bill - what's new, what's been dropped?

Mythbusting: Third-party harassment liability and tribunal awards