Sources
Where every date comes from
We cite only government and statutory sources on the site: legislation.gov.uk, GOV.UK and Acas. All were checked on 12 July 2026.
Primary sources
- Employment Rights Act 2025, the Act itself, recording Royal Assent on 18 December 2025. legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2025/36
- Implementing the Plan to Make Work Pay and Employment Rights Act: timeline update, GOV.UK, the revised tranche dates, including the six-month unfair dismissal qualifying period and fire-and-rehire at January 2027. gov.uk timeline update
- Implementing the Employment Rights Bill: our roadmap for delivering change (July 2025), GOV.UK, the original phased plan. Note its foreword still references day-one unfair dismissal and fire-and-rehire at October 2026, both superseded by the revised timeline. gov.uk roadmap (PDF)
- Zero-hours contracts factsheet, GOV.UK, on the guaranteed-hours reform and the consultation on the low-hours threshold and reference period. gov.uk zero-hours factsheet (PDF)
- Acas, Employment Rights Act 2025, corroborating the 6 April 2026 changes (SSP from day one, day-one paternity and parental leave), the Fair Work Agency on 7 April 2026, and the January 2027 dismissal changes. acas.org.uk/employment-rights-act-2025
How we use them
On the live site we cite only legislation.gov.uk, GOV.UK and Acas. Where two government sources differ, the revised timeline update governs, and we note the change on the timeline guide. We cross-check dates against published law-firm briefings behind the scenes, but we do not cite them as authority on the page.
Content accurate as at 12 July 2026. The 2027 measures are still being finalised; re-check the primary source before acting on an indicative date.