What is new in Employment Tribunal law in 2026?

Overview

The underlying reform package is the Employment Rights Act 2025. Acas says the Act became law on 18 December 2025 and will introduce employment law changes during 2026 and 2027. It also warns that most changes have not yet happened and that the rest of the Acas website reflects the current position unless updated.

For practitioners, that warning is central. Commencement, saving and transitional provisions may determine whether a new right applies at all. Limitation analysis still requires the act complained of, effective date of termination, Acas early conciliation dates and ET1 presentation date.

Procedural changes

The most immediate tribunal-specific change is procedural. The Tribunal Procedure and Employment Tribunal Procedure (Amendment) Rules 2026, SI 2026/115, came into force on 2 March 2026. The Rules amend the Employment Tribunal Procedure Rules 2024. The official material confirms that the amendments include dispute resolution appointments, judicial assessment, rejection or dismissal where claims, responses, employer contract claims or replies contain no grounds, and provision on summary reasons and full reasons.

That matters for pleadings. Claimants and respondents should not treat ET1s, ET3s or employer contract-claim documents as loose narratives. Grounds must be identified. A claim or response which does not explain the legal and factual basis of the case is at greater procedural risk.

The reasons regime also matters. The SI 2026/115 explanatory material says the amendments enable tribunals to give summary reasons and direct parties to provide draft case management orders. The Employment Appeal Tribunal amendments require an appeal from an Employment Tribunal judgment to be accompanied by written full reasons and clarify when the appeal time limit begins.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (Amendment) Rules 2026, SI 2026/114, reinforce that point. The legislation.gov.uk note states that an ET appeal must be accompanied by written full reasons. It also states that, where written full reasons were requested in time, the appeal time limit starts when those reasons are sent; where full reasons were not requested in time, an appeal must be instituted within 42 days from the date the written record of judgment was sent.

Rights already in force

Whistleblowing and harassment

Whistleblowing and harassment now overlap in a new way. From 6 April 2026, a disclosure about sexual harassment can qualify under whistleblowing law, giving protection from detriment and unfair dismissal where the statutory conditions are met. That means the disclosure still needs to satisfy the whistleblowing test; the fact that the subject matter is sexual harassment does not remove the need to establish the statutory elements.

Holiday records

Holiday records have also become more important. Acas says that from 6 April 2026 employers must keep records of annual leave, leave carried over, holiday pay and payments in lieu of holiday for at least six years and manage them in line with UK GDPR.

Remedy valuation

Remedy valuation must be updated. The Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2026, SI 2026/310, increases limits from 6 April 2026 and contains transitional wording where the appropriate date falls before 6 April 2026. The Order increased the unfair dismissal compensatory award limit from £118,223 to £123,543 and the week’s pay limit from £719 to £751.

In discrimination claims, the Judiciary’s Ninth Addendum to the Vento guidance applies to claims presented on or after 6 April 2026. It sets the lower band at £1,300 to £12,600, the middle band at £12,600 to £37,700, and the upper band at £37,700 to £62,900, with exceptional cases capable of exceeding £62,900.

Later-2026 changes

Later-2026 changes remain timing-sensitive. GOV.UK says electronic and workplace balloting for statutory trade union ballots will take effect in August 2026. It lists October 2026 measures including a duty to inform workers of their right to join a trade union, stronger trade union access rights, new protections for union representatives, wider detriment protection for industrial action, and harassment measures requiring employers to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment and not permit third-party harassment.

For now, Acas’s current time-limit guidance still says most Employment Tribunal claims have a limit of three months minus one day, with six months minus one day applying only to a few categories. That means current claimants should not assume they have six months.

What is not yet in force?

The unfair dismissal reform is not a current 2026 change. Acas says protection from unfair dismissal will become a right after six months in a job, as part of the Employment Rights Act 2025, but that this change will happen in January 2027 and is not yet law.

Costs remain a consultation issue. The Tribunal Procedure Committee opened a consultation on possible amendments to costs and expenses rules on 6 May 2026. The consultation is considering proposed changes to rules governing when and how costs, or expenses in Scotland, may be awarded in the First-tier Tribunal, Upper Tribunal and Employment Tribunals.

For Employment Tribunals, the consultation paper is narrower than that headline may suggest. It states that the TPC’s power under section 13(1) of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996 does not extend to rules allowing interest on ET costs; for Employment Tribunals, the proposals concern payments on account and pro bono costs orders.

Tribunal statistics

The latest official statistics provide background, not causation. Justice Data says Employment Tribunal data from July 2021 has been affected by case-management and data changes, and its latest tribunal statistics publication date is 12 March 2026, with the next publication due on 11 June 2026. It records 13,047 single-claim Employment Tribunal receipts and 5,728 single-claim disposals in the three months to 31 December 2025.

Conclusion

The safe legal conclusion is that 2026 is a transition year. Practitioners should update pleadings, remedy schedules, appeal-reasons practice, family-leave and SSP advice, redundancy exposure, whistleblowing pleadings, holiday-record evidence and harassment-prevention preparation. But limitation, jurisdiction, commencement, transitional provisions, costs exposure, privilege and settlement wording remain case-specific.