UK Employment Update — May 2026 Flexible working rights changed significantly in April 2024 under the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023, and further changes are expected under the Employment Rights Bill currently progressing through Parliament. If you haven't reviewed your flexible working policy since then, there's a reasonable chance you're not operating correctly. Here's what changed, who it affects, and what you need to do. What Changed in April 2024 Employees can request flexible working from day one. Previously, employees had to complete 26 weeks of continuous employment before making a flexible working request. That requirement is gone. A new starter can request flexible working on their first day. Two requests per year, not one. Employees can now make two statutory flexible working requests in any 12-month period, up from one. Employers must respond within two months. The response window was reduced from three months to two months — including any appeal. Employers must consult before refusing. Before rejecting a request, employers are now required to hold a consultation meeting with the employee. Previously this wasn't a formal requirement. The grounds for refusal remain the same. There are still eight statutory grounds on which an employer can refuse a flexible working request (burden of additional costs, detrimental impact on quality, inability to reorganise work, etc.) — but the bar for applying them is higher. Who This Affects Every UK employer is covered. But the operational impact varies significantly: Office-based businesses have the most flexibility to accommodate requests for remote work or adjusted hours without significant disruption. Shift-based operations — warehouses, hospitality, retail, care — face the biggest challenge. A request to work Monday to Wednesday only, or to avoid early shifts, can have genuine operational impact. The legal framework acknowledges this, but businesses still need to demonstrate that refusal is based on a valid statutory ground — not just preference. Small businesses often find flexible working requests harder to accommodate because there's less redundancy in the structure. A team of six doesn't absorb a rota change the same way a team of sixty does. What Employers Need to Do Now Update your flexible working policy. If your policy still refers to a 26-week qualifying period or a three-month response window, it's out of date. Review and reissue it. Train your managers. Line managers are often the first point of contact for flexible working requests. They need to know the current rules — particularly the requirement to consult before refusing. Document every request and response. Flexible working requests are a potential source of tribunal claims, particularly if an employee believes their request was refused unfairly or without proper process. Document management software helps keep a clear record of every request, every consultation meeting, and every decision. Be specific about grounds for refusal. Vague refusals ("it won't work for the business") are not sufficient. If you're refusing, state which statutory ground applies and explain why. This is important both for fairness and for legal defensibility. Consider a trial period. Where there is genuine uncertainty about whether a new working arrangement will work, a time-limited trial is a reasonable middle ground. It shows good faith and gives you actual evidence to rely on if you later need to revisit the arrangement. Common Mistakes Refusing without consulting first. This is now a procedural requirement, not optional. Skipping a consultation meeting before refusing a request is a compliance failure regardless of how valid your grounds are. Treating the eight grounds as an automatic veto. The grounds are available to justify refusal — they don't make refusal automatic. You still need to consider the specific request and demonstrate that the ground actually applies. Ignoring requests from shift workers. There's a temptation to dismiss requests from operational teams on the basis that "shifts don't work that way." That may be true — but you need to go through the proper process to establish it, not simply decline. See our guide on HR software for shift-based teams for more on managing operational workforce requests. Related Tools & Solutions Leave Management Software — manage flexible working requests and leave through one structured system HR Management Software — centralise HR processes including employee requests and policy documentation Document Management — store and retrieve flexible working requests, decisions and consultation notes Employee Self-Service Software — let employees submit requests and track their status without chasing HR HR Software for Small Business — manage compliance and people processes without a dedicated HR team How VeltoHR Helps VeltoHR's leave and requests module lets you manage flexible working requests through a structured workflow — so nothing gets lost in email threads and every decision is documented. Managers receive requests through the platform, can record consultation notes, and issue decisions within the required timeframe. See how VeltoHR manages employee requests →