From 1 October 2026, the deadline for bringing most employment tribunal claims in England and Wales is six months rather than three. The change is made by section 152 of, and Schedule 12 to, the Employment Rights Act 2025, commenced by SI 2026/954, together with two further instruments covering claims Schedule 12 does not reach. It applies only where the event complained of falls on or after 1 October 2026, so for the rest of this year two limitation regimes run side by side.
What changes on 1 October 2026?
There are three instruments that underpin this, and it is worth separating them, because they cover different claims.
The main one is section 152 of, and Schedule 12 to, the Employment Rights Act 2025 (2025 c. 36). Those provisions were enacted but left uncommenced until the Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 5 and Transitional Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/954), made on 1 September 2026, fixed the date. The explanatory note to SI 2026/954 says the provisions "extend time limits for instituting claims to employment tribunals from three to six months".
Two further instruments, both made on 6 July 2026 and both in force on 1 October 2026, pick up what Schedule 12 leaves out. The Employment Tribunal (Extension of Time Limits) (Miscellaneous Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/758) amend seven statutory instruments, covering part-time workers, fixed-term employees, information and consultation, blacklisting, zero-hours exclusivity terms and protected disclosures in NHS recruitment. The Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (England and Wales) (Amendment) Order 2026 (SI 2026/759) deals with breach of contract claims brought in the tribunal: article 2 amends article 7 of the Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (England and Wales) Order 1994 so that the three-month limit in paragraphs (a) and (b) becomes six months.
Acas states that the new limit is six months minus one day. A dismissal taking effect on 5 November 2026 therefore gives a claimant until 4 May 2027.
Nothing else changes on that date. The test for unfair dismissal, the qualifying service rules and the compensation limits are all unaffected. Only the length of the window has moved.
It is a defensible change. Three months is short for someone who has just lost their job, is attempting conciliation and may be taking advice for the first time, and it would be wrong to present the extension as unreasonable. Even so, for an employer the consequence is a longer period of exposure and a later point at which a dispute becomes visible at all.
Which claims does the six-month limit cover?
Schedule 12 works by amending limitation periods across a long list of enactments rather than by creating one general rule. The provisions it amends include:
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unfair dismissal, under section 111 of the Employment Rights Act 1996
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unlawful deduction from wages, under section 23 of the 1996 Act
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discrimination, harassment and victimisation at work, under section 123 of the Equality Act 2010
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written statement of particulars, time-off rights and flexible working, under sections 11, 51 to 63C and 80H of the 1996 Act
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claims under the Working Time Regulations 1998, the National Minimum Wage Act 1998, TUPE 2006 and the Agency Workers Regulations 2010
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a range of claims under the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992
Read with SI 2026/758 and SI 2026/759, the practical position is that wages, dismissal, discrimination and tribunal contract claims all run on the same six-month clock. The contract limb is the one most easily overlooked, and it reaches ordinary disputes: unpaid notice, an unpaid commission or bonus, a deduction the contract did not permit. Claims of this kind are the bulk of what our employment and HR support work involves.
Does it apply to something that happened before 1 October?
No. Regulation 4 of SI 2026/954 provides that the Schedule 12 amendments "do not apply in any case where the relevant date occurs before 1st October 2026", and the Schedule to those Regulations sets the relevant date claim by claim. For most claims it is the date of the act, conduct or failure complained of, or the last act or failure in a series. Tribunal contract claims sit outside Schedule 12 and have their own test. Article 3 of SI 2026/759 applies the six-month limit where the effective date of termination occurs on or after 1 October 2026 or, where there is no effective date of termination, where the last day on which the employee worked occurs on or after that date.
So a dismissal taking effect on 30 September 2026 carries three months, and one taking effect on 1 October carries six. Limitation dates should be recorded from the date of the underlying event, not the date a complaint is received. For a restructuring being planned this month, the effective date of termination decides which regime applies, which is the sort of point commercial solicitors are asked in the last week of September, and it turns on a date rather than on the merits.
How long before a claim actually reaches you?
Longer than six months, because notifying Acas stops the clock and that machinery is untouched by these changes. The Employment Tribunals (Early Conciliation: Exemptions and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 (SI 2025/1153), in force since 1 December 2025, extended the early conciliation period from six weeks to twelve.
Take the 5 November 2026 dismissal again. Limitation runs to 4 May 2027. If the employee notifies Acas on 30 April, conciliation can run for twelve weeks, and a claim form can land in late July 2027, close to nine months after the decision was taken. The hearing sits behind that: the Ministry of Justice's Tribunal Statistics Quarterly for April to June 2026, published on 10 September 2026, recorded 70,000 open single employment tribunal claims at the end of June 2026, with a further 467,000 claims held in open multiples. The same release notes a data quality review in progress and a possible 3% overcount, so those are figures for scale rather than precision.
What is worth doing before 1 October?
Retention comes first, because it is the only item here that becomes impossible to fix later. A tribunal decides on the documents put in front of it, and an appraisal note, rota or investigation file that a system deleted on a twelve-month cycle is not available in August 2027 whatever anyone recalls. The setting to check is usually the automatic deletion rule in the HR or payroll system rather than the written policy. Longer retention still has to be justifiable under UK GDPR, so tie the period to limitation and hearing time.
Contemporaneous recording comes second. In our experience the document that decides an unfair dismissal case is the investigation note, and it is the one most often written up after the event rather than during it. A note made in November 2026 carries weight in a 2027 hearing that the same account, assembled for the hearing, does not.
Settlement comes third, and it is a commercial question rather than a procedural one. What a settlement agreement buys on exit is a release, and a release is worth something different against a six-month window than against a three-month one. It is priced in the exit conversation, not in the month a claim form arrives.
Insurance comes fourth and takes ten minutes. Employment practices liability and legal expenses policies generally require notification of circumstances that may give rise to a claim within a period fixed by the policy. That period is a contractual term, and the statutory extension does not move it.
What none of this requires is a change to employment contracts. The extension bears on records, timing and insurance, not on drafting.
Does it change how dismissals and exits should be handled?
Not in substance. A fair reason, a proportionate investigation, a real opportunity to respond, a decision recorded with its reasons, and an appeal where one is appropriate: the process examined in 2027 is the process run in 2026. What the extension changes is when that work pays for itself, which is now considerably later, and how long a decision taken without advice remains open to challenge. A process review before the decision is taken is the sort of work our fixed-fee services cover, and having a solicitor on hand at that point is the argument for a legal subscription rather than an hourly engagement after the fact.
Frequently asked questions
When do employment tribunal time limits change?
On 1 October 2026. SI 2026/954, made on 1 September 2026, commenced section 152 of, and Schedule 12 to, the Employment Rights Act 2025 from that date. SI 2026/758 and SI 2026/759 come into force the same day.
Is the new time limit exactly six months?
Acas states that the limit for most claims becomes six months minus one day. A small number of claims, including equal pay and statutory redundancy pay, already carry six months minus one day.
Does the six-month limit apply to a dismissal in September 2026?
No. Regulation 4 of SI 2026/954 disapplies the extension where the relevant date falls before 1 October 2026, so a dismissal taking effect on 30 September 2026 keeps the three-month limit.
Do breach of contract claims in the tribunal get six months too?
Yes, in England and Wales. SI 2026/759 amends article 7 of the Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (England and Wales) Order 1994, substituting six months for three, from 1 October 2026. Article 3 of that Order applies the new limit where the effective date of termination falls on or after 1 October 2026 or, where there is no effective date of termination, where the employee's last working day falls on or after that date.
Does Acas early conciliation still stop the clock?
Yes. The existing rules on extensions of time, including the pause during early conciliation, are unaffected. That period has been up to twelve weeks since 1 December 2025 under SI 2025/1153.
How long should employment records be kept now?
There is no single statutory retention period, and data minimisation under UK GDPR cuts against keeping records indefinitely. The question is whether the current schedule holds records long enough to defend a claim issued up to six months after the event, plus conciliation and hearing time.
This article is general information about the law of England and Wales as at 17 September 2026 and is not legal advice on any particular situation. Lawyerly's business solicitors advise employers on dismissal and exit process, on retention and record-keeping, and on settlement agreements, either on a fixed monthly fee or a fixed fee for a single piece of work.
