Paper to note: Employment Rights Bill update

1. To provide an update on the status of the Employment Rights Bill (the Bill).  For further background and context, the SPC should refer to previous update papers provided to the SPC for is meetings in December 2024, March 2025, and June 2025. 

2. The Bill continues its parliamentary progress and is approaching the conclusion of all parliamentary stages. Since the last update paper to the SPC in June, the Bill completed Report Stage in the House of Lords prior to the UK Parliament rising for recess. 
    
3. We expect the House of Lords to finish its final debate on the Bill (the 3rd Reading) on 3 September 2025. After that, there will likely be a back-and-forth between the Lords and the Commons, known as ‘ping-pong’, to sort out any differences. This process may not be concluded before the House of Commons takes its break for party conferences on 16 September.  Latest expectations are that the Bill is unlikely to pass all its stages and gain Royal Assent before November at the very earliest. 

4. Significant amendments to the Bill introduced since the last update paper to SPC in June relate to:

• ban on confidentiality clauses (NDAs) related to harassment or discrimination
• revised fire-and-rehire rules making dismissals automatically unfair under certain conditions
• updates to the whistleblowing regime
• simplified rules for zero-hours and agency workers

5. Since the last update paper to SPC in June, the Senedd debated all four Legislative Consent Memoranda on 15 July. The Senedd provided its consent with 27 votes in favour, 13 against, and 10 abstentions. A record of the debate is at Plenary 15/07/2025 - Welsh Parliament.

6. The UK Government will take a phased approach to the implementation of the Bill and the laying of regulations. This approach is set out in the roadmap published by the UK Government in July 2025 -  Implementing the Employment Rights Bill - Our roadmap for delivering change .   
    
7. This autumn, we will work with the Social Care Fair Work Forum and others to discuss the significant work required before we are in a position to establish the Social Care Negotiating Body. 

NB: This paper accurately reflects the position at the time of writing, 3 September 2025.