The Employment Protection Code of Practice (Time Off for Trade Union Duties and Activities) Order 2026 was made on 19 October 2026 and fixes 30 October 2026 as the date when ACAS’s revised code comes into effect. The statutory instrument says the Order applies in England and Wales and Scotland, and it was signed by Kate Dearden, Minister of State at the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade. The legal change is narrow but operationally important. The Order does not create a new stand-alone entitlement to time off. Its function is to bring the revised ACAS Code of Practice on Time Off for Trade Union Duties and Activities into force, replacing the version that has been in effect since 1 January 2010.
The instrument also sets out the formal process behind the revision. Under sections 199 and 200 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, ACAS proposed changes to the code, published a draft, considered representations on that draft and then modified the text before sending it to the Secretary of State. According to the Order, the Secretary of State approved the draft and laid it before both Houses of Parliament. The relevant code is defined as the revised text laid on 6 July 2026, and the instrument records that both Houses approved it before ACAS issued the final version.
The Explanatory Note says the revised code includes guidance on time off for trade union representatives, trade union learning representatives and equality representatives. It also states that the revision reflects changes made by the Employment Rights Act 2025. For employers, unions and workplace representatives, the main point is that the operative ACAS guidance changes at the end of October. Policies, manager guidance and advice on requests for time off should therefore be checked against the new text once 30 October 2026 arrives.
The transitional provision in article 3 is likely to be the part most used in live cases. The new code does not apply, so far as it is relevant to employment tribunal claims under section 168(4)(a) or section 168A(9)(a) of the 1992 Act, where the employer’s failure to permit time off occurred before 30 October 2026. The Explanatory Note spells out the consequence. Where that cut-off date points to an earlier event, the previous code brought into effect by the Employment Protection Code of Practice (Time Off for Trade Union Duties and Activities) Order 2009 continues to apply.
In practical terms, that creates a clear split between older disputes and new ones. A refusal of time off before 30 October 2026 will stay within the older code for the tribunal claims covered by article 3, while a refusal on or after that date will fall under the revised ACAS document. That distinction may matter where a grievance, internal appeal or tribunal claim is already under way. Employers and representatives will need reliable records showing when the request was made, when the response was given and on what date the alleged failure to permit time off occurred.
The Explanatory Note also says no full impact assessment has been produced for the Order or for the code because no, or no significant, effect on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen. Instead, the government points to the impact assessment published for the Employment Rights Act 2025 measures on trade union access, recognition and representation. ACAS has published the revised code, and the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade says a copy can also be inspected through the department. For HR teams, union officials and advisers, the immediate task is to identify the date of the alleged failure to permit time off and match the case to the correct code. In the tribunal contexts named in article 3, earlier events remain under the 2010 code and later events move to the revised ACAS text from 30 October 2026 onward.