The Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 4 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026 were made on 26 May 2026 under sections 155 and 159(3) and (4) of the 2025 Act. Signed by Kate Dearden, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business and Trade, the instrument sets the next implementation dates for the Act's unfair dismissal provisions. For employers, advisers and workers, the immediate point is timing. The Regulations create a two-stage commencement, with a limited power switched on from 1 July 2026 and the remaining section 25 and Schedule 3 provisions due to take effect from 1 January 2027.
From 1 July 2026, the instrument brings into force section 25(5) of the 2025 Act only so far as it relates to paragraph 5 of Schedule 3, together with paragraph 5 itself, which gives a power to make further consequential amendments. The explanatory note states that this early commencement is intended to allow that power to be exercised from that date. That July start is therefore a technical step rather than the full commencement of the unfair dismissal changes. According to the explanatory note, the power is needed when using section 154 of the 2025 Act to make amendments arising from the repeal of section 124 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 by section 25(3) of the 2025 Act.
The wider change arrives on 1 January 2027. On that date, the remainder of section 25, so far as not already in force, and the rest of Schedule 3 will commence, subject to the transitional and saving rules set out in regulation 4. The explanatory note identifies those provisions as relating to unfair dismissal. In practical terms, the statutory timetable now separates preparatory powers in mid-2026 from the main commencement point at the start of 2027.
Regulation 4 is the key bridge between the old and new positions. The specified amendments made by section 25(2) and (3), together with listed paragraphs of Schedule 3, will apply where an employee is dismissed before 1 January 2027 but the effective date of termination falls on or after that date. The reverse is also made explicit. Where the effective date of termination falls before 1 January 2027, those amendments do not apply. A dismissal communicated in late 2026 but taking effect in January 2027 is therefore brought within the new framework for the provisions listed in regulation 4(1).
The Regulations adopt the existing meanings of dismissed and effective date of termination from Part 10 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, specifically sections 95 and 97. That drafting matters because it keeps the transition anchored to established statutory concepts already used in unfair dismissal cases. There is also a saving provision aimed at continuity. Regulation 4(3) states that the amendment made by section 25(4) of the 2025 Act does not affect any regulations made under section 209(5) of the 1996 Act as that subsection stood immediately before the amendment took effect. The effect is to preserve existing subordinate legislation made under that power.
The explanatory note also points readers to the wider policy material published during passage of the Employment Rights Bill. It refers to impact assessments prepared for the Bill as introduced on 10 October 2024, and to supplementary economic analysis and enactment summary impact assessments published on 7 January 2026. For organisations planning for compliance, the immediate administrative date is 1 July 2026, but the main operational date remains 1 January 2027. Employers with dismissals likely to span that boundary will need to check notice arrangements and termination dates closely, because the transitional rules are drafted around when employment legally ends.