According to legislation.gov.uk, the Code of Practice (Access and Unfair Practices During the Recognition and Derecognition Process) Order 2026 was made on 26 October 2026, laid before Parliament on 27 October 2026 and will come into force on 30 October 2026. Signed by Kate Dearden, Minister of State at the Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade, the instrument brings a revised statutory Code into effect under the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. The legal change is narrower than the title may suggest. The Order does not rewrite the statutory recognition framework itself; its main function is to activate updated guidance on access and unfair practices during recognition and derecognition cases.
The revised Code replaces the Code of Practice on Access and Unfair Practices during Recognition and Derecognition Ballots, which has been in force since 1 October 2005. The shift in wording is important. The 2005 Code was centred on ballots, whereas the 2026 Code is framed around the wider recognition and derecognition process. That broader approach follows amendments made by the Employment Rights Act 2025 to Schedule A1 of the 1992 Act. As set out in the Order, the Secretary of State's code-making power now expressly covers requests for access and unfair practices in several parts of the statutory process.
Under sections 203 and 204 of the 1992 Act, the Secretary of State may issue or revise Codes of Practice intended to improve industrial relations. The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade states that the new Code was prepared after consultation with Acas, published in draft, and then modified after representations were considered. The parliamentary stage has already been completed. The draft Code was laid before both Houses on 6 July 2026, approved by the House of Lords on 14 October 2026 and by the House of Commons on 21 October 2026, before the final Order was made on 26 October 2026.
In plain terms, recognition is the statutory route by which a union secures collective bargaining rights, while derecognition is the route for ending those arrangements. The revised Code is aimed at disputes that reach the Central Arbitration Committee under Schedule A1 to the 1992 Act, including recognition applications, bargaining unit disputes and applications connected with ending bargaining arrangements. For employers, unions and affected workers, the operational point is that the guidance now addresses conduct across the process rather than only during ballots. That matters because access to workers and allegations of unfair practice can arise well before a vote is held, or in cases where the dispute turns on bargaining arrangements rather than a ballot alone.
The territorial reach of the instrument is limited to England and Wales and Scotland. The extent clause does not include Northern Ireland. The Order also makes clear that the change is not retrospective. Article 3 preserves the 2005 Code for specified Schedule A1 applications received by the Central Arbitration Committee before 30 October 2026.
Those saved cases include, in broad terms, applications following a rejected recognition request or failed negotiations, disputes over whether a bargaining unit remains appropriate, and several routes for ending bargaining arrangements, including certain automatic recognition and non-independent union cases. The legislation therefore uses a clear filing-date test rather than moving live cases onto a new guidance set mid-process. For case handling, that cut-off date is likely to be the most immediate point of attention. Two similar disputes may fall under different Codes depending on when the application reached the Central Arbitration Committee, so parties will need to check timing before relying on the revised text.
The explanatory note says the revised Code is available on GOV.UK and that no full impact assessment has been produced because no, or no significant, impact on the private, voluntary or public sector is foreseen. That assessment sits alongside a practical point: organisations involved in statutory recognition or derecognition proceedings will still need to work from the correct Code from 30 October 2026. Taken together, the Order and the revised Code amount to a procedural update rather than a redesign of union recognition law. From 30 October 2026, new qualifying Schedule A1 cases in England, Wales and Scotland will move onto the revised Code, while earlier Central Arbitration Committee applications will remain under the 2005 arrangements.