Tribunal Time Limits Set to Rise to Six Months on 1 October 2026

Employment Tribunal Time Limits Will Rise to Six Months on 1 October 2026

The Secretary of State made SI 2026/954 on 1 September 2026. It commences section 152 of, and Schedule 12 to, the Employment Rights Act 2025 on 1 October 2026, extending the time limit for instituting most employment tribunal claims from three months to six.

Information last verified on 10 September 2026.

Status: The Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 5 and Transitional Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations 2026, SI 2026/954 (C. 79), were made on 1 September 2026. The provisions they commence come into force on 1 October 2026 and are not in force today. The three-month limit continues to govern any claim whose 'relevant date' falls before 1 October 2026, which covers essentially every dispute already live as at the date of this article.

Jurisdiction scope: SI 2026/758 states at regulation 1(3) that it extends to England and Wales and Scotland. SI 2026/954, as made, contains no express extent provision, and this article does not assert one. Northern Ireland legislates separately on employment. Section 158(5)(a) of the Employment Rights Act 2025 provides that the amendments made by paragraph 9(3) and (4) of Schedule 12 extend to Northern Ireland only. Paragraph 9(3) inserts a new regulation 27AA into the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 1999 creating a right to complain to an industrial tribunal in Northern Ireland, and that new provision keeps a three-month limit rather than a six-month one; paragraph 9(4) makes consequential cross-reference amendments to regulation 27B of those Regulations. Northern Ireland is not untouched beyond that, however. Section 152 of the Act says Schedule 12 increases time limits in employment tribunals in Great Britain 'and, in certain cases, industrial tribunals in Northern Ireland', because under section 158(4) every other amendment in the Schedule carries the same extent as the provision it amends. Paragraph 19 is the clearest example: it substitutes 'six' for 'three' in regulation 26(6) of the Merchant Shipping (Maritime Labour Convention) (Hours of Work) Regulations 2018, and regulation 4 of those Regulations applies them in Northern Ireland with 'industrial tribunal' read for 'employment tribunal'. The main Northern Ireland employment statutes are not amended, so unfair dismissal and discrimination claims there are unaffected.

What Happened

On 1 September 2026 the Secretary of State made the Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 5 and Transitional Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations 2026, published as 2026 No. 954 (C. 79) under the subject heading TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF EMPLOYMENT. The enabling powers are sections 155 and 159(3) of the Employment Rights Act 2025 (c. 36). The instrument was signed by Kate Dearden, Minister of State, Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade.

Regulation 3 is the operative commencement provision. It provides that section 152 and Schedule 12 to the 2025 Act, headed "increase in time limits for making claims", come into force on 1st October 2026, subject to the transitional provisions in regulation 4.

The Explanatory Note states the effect in plain terms:

These Regulations bring into force, on 1st October 2026, section 152 of, and Schedule 12 to, the Employment Rights Act 2025 (c. 36) ("the 2025 Act"), which extend time limits for instituting claims to employment tribunals from three to six months.

Regulation 5 does something unrelated and much smaller. It corrects an error in regulation 7(2) of the Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 2 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations 2026, SI 2026/323, substituting "regulation" for "paragraph". Under regulation 1(2), regulation 5 has effect on the day after the day on which the Regulations were made, so that correction is the only part of SI 2026/954 already operative.

SI 2026/954 is not the only instrument landing on 1 October 2026. The Employment Tribunal (Extension of Time Limits) (Miscellaneous Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2026, SI 2026/758, were made on 6 July 2026 and come into force on the same date. That instrument took the affirmative procedure: a draft was laid before Parliament and approved by a resolution of each House. Its enabling powers are drawn from sections 27B, 49B and 236(5) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, sections 3 and 19 of the Employment Relations Act 1999, sections 45 and 51 of the Employment Act 2002, and section 42 of the Employment Relations Act 2004.

The two instruments cover different claims, and that distinction is easy to lose. SI 2026/758's own Explanatory Note is explicit about its narrow reach:

These Regulations amend seven statutory instruments to extend time limits for presenting complaints to the Employment Tribunal for specified matters from three months to six months.

What the Law Actually Says

The primary statutes move under Schedule 12

Schedule 12 to the Employment Rights Act 2025 is a list of textual amendments. In almost every case it substitutes "six" for "three" in an existing time-limit provision. The enactments it reaches are:

• Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (paragraph 2): sections 66(2)(a), 68A(1)(a), 70C(2), 87(2)(a), 139(1)(a), 145C(1)(a), 147(1)(a), 171(1)(a), 189(5), 192(2), and paragraph 157(1)(a) of Schedule A1, where "three" becomes "six", except for paragraph 157(1)(a) of Schedule A1, where the numerals "3" and "6" are used.
• Pension Schemes Act 1993 (paragraph 3): section 126(2), unpaid pension contributions.
• Employment Rights Act 1996 (paragraph 4): twenty-five separate provisions, including section 11(4) on written statements, section 23 on protection of wages, section 27N on information relating to tips, section 34 on guarantee payments, section 48(3) on detriment in employment, the time off provisions at sections 51, 54, 57, 57ZC, 57ZF, 57ZH, 57ZM, 57ZQ, 57B, 60, 63, 63C and 63I, section 70 and section 70A on suspension and on agency workers whose supply ends on maternity grounds, section 80 on parental leave, section 80H on flexible working requests, section 80N on carer's leave, section 111(2) on unfair dismissal, and section 188 on rights where an employer is insolvent.
• Equality Act 2010 (paragraph 18): section 123(1)(a), the time limit for discrimination and related complaints at work. This is a single-character change, "3" to "6".
• Secondary legislation reached directly by the Schedule: the Safety Representatives and Safety Committees Regulations 1977, the Health and Safety (Consultation with Employees) Regulations 1996, regulation 30 of the Working Time Regulations 1998, the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 1999, the Merchant Shipping (Working Time: Inland Waterways) Regulations 2003, the Civil Aviation (Working Time) Regulations 2004, the Fishing Vessels (Working Time: Sea-fishermen) Regulations 2004, regulations 12 and 15 of TUPE 2006, the Occupational and Personal Pension Schemes (Consultation by Employers and Miscellaneous Amendment) Regulations 2006, the Cross-border Railway Services (Working Time) Regulations 2008, the European Public Limited-Liability Company (Employee Involvement) (Great Britain) Regulations 2009, regulation 18(4) of the Agency Workers Regulations 2010, and regulation 26(6) of the Merchant Shipping (Maritime Labour Convention) (Hours of Work) Regulations 2018.
• National Minimum Wage Act 1998 section 11 and Employment Relations Act 1999 section 11 (paragraphs 7 and 8).

So the two claim types that carry most of the volume, unfair dismissal and discrimination at work, move under Schedule 12 and therefore under SI 2026/954. They do not move under SI 2026/758.

The seven sets of regulations that move under SI 2026/758

Regulations 3 to 9 of SI 2026/758 amend, in order: regulation 8(2) of the Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000; regulation 7(2) of the Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002; regulation 29(2) of the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004; regulations 7(1) and 10(1) of the Employment Relations Act 1999 (Blacklists) Regulations 2010; regulation 3(2) of the Exclusivity Terms in Zero Hours Contracts (Redress) Regulations 2015; regulation 5(1) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (NHS Recruitment - Protected Disclosure) Regulations 2018; and regulation 8(2) of the Exclusivity Terms for Zero Hours Workers (Unenforceability and Redress) Regulations 2022.

That is the whole of its reach. None of those seven instruments is amended by Schedule 12, and SI 2026/758 does not amend the Employment Rights Act 1996 or the Equality Act 2010. The two instruments are complementary rather than overlapping.

Two transitional schemes, both turning on a 'relevant date'

Regulation 4(1) of SI 2026/954 is the pivot:

The amendments made by Schedule 12 to the 2025 Act do not apply in any case where the relevant date occurs before 1st October 2026.

Regulation 4(2) then defines that date three ways. Where the complaint is made under an enactment listed in Table 1 or Table 2 of the Schedule to SI 2026/954, the relevant date is the one set opposite it in column 2. Where the complaint is a reference under section 11(1) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and the employment has ceased, it is the date the employment ceased. In all other cases it is the date of the act, conduct or failure complained of, or the last act or failure in a series of similar acts or failures.

The Table 1 entries include the ones most people will need. For a complaint of unfair dismissal under section 111(1) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, the relevant date is the effective date of termination as defined by section 97. For a complaint under section 120 of the Equality Act 2010 of a contravention of Part 5 of that Act, it is the date of the act, or where there is conduct extending over a period the end of that period, or where the complaint is of a failure to do something the date the person in question decided on it. Note the drafting: the transitional table keys the relevant date to the complaint provision at section 120, while the limit itself sits in section 123(1)(a), which is what Schedule 12 amends.

SI 2026/758 has its own transitional scheme at regulation 10, structured differently. Regulation 10(1) applies the same principle, that the amendments do not apply where the relevant date occurs before 1 October 2026, and regulations 10(2) to 10(6) then set a relevant date for each of the seven instruments. For part-time and most fixed-term complaints it is the date of the less favourable treatment or detriment, or the last in a series. For a fixed-term vacancy complaint it is the date, or last date, on which other individuals were informed of the vacancy. For an information and consultation time off complaint it is the date the time off was taken or on which it is alleged it should have been permitted. For blacklist proceedings under regulation 9(1) and for the two zero hours instruments it is the date of the act or failure complained of, or the last in a series of similar acts or failures. For blacklist proceedings under regulations 5(1) or 6(1) and NHS protected disclosure complaints it is the date of the conduct complained of.

The practical upshot is the same under both instruments and is worth stating plainly. The date that matters is when the thing complained of happened, not when the claim is presented. Filing on 2 October 2026 about a dismissal that took effect in August 2026 does not buy six months. Our overview of employment tribunal time limits sets out how the existing three-month rule operates.

Analysis: Why This Matters

The following is analysis from the Recording Law Editorial Team.

The reporting risk here is not the headline, which is accurate as far as it goes. It is the compression of two instruments into one story. SI 2026/758 was made in July and has had two months of coverage; SI 2026/954 was made on 1 September and does the heavier lifting. A reader who took away that tribunal time limits were extended in July, and who checked no further, would have the right date and the wrong instrument, and would be relying on regulations that never touched their claim type at all.

The transitional rule is the second trap, and it is the one with consequences. Both instruments are drafted so that the extension attaches to the underlying event rather than to the act of claiming. For the next several months, the population of claims actually governed by the six-month limit will be small and will grow one day at a time, while the population governed by the three-month limit will include almost everything anyone is currently thinking about. A confident but imprecise summary of this change, read in late September by someone whose dismissal took effect in July, is a summary that can leave them out of time.

There is also a quieter drafting point in the Northern Ireland treatment. Paragraph 9 of Schedule 12 splits regulation 27 of the 1999 Transnational Information and Consultation Regulations, confining it to employment tribunals in Great Britain, and inserts a new regulation 27AA for industrial tribunals in Northern Ireland at a three-month limit. Whatever else that tells us, it is a reminder that a reform to the Great Britain tribunal provisions does not automatically travel across the Irish Sea, and that anyone reading this change should check which tribunal system they are actually in.

What Happens Next

On 1 October 2026, section 152 of and Schedule 12 to the Employment Rights Act 2025 come into force, and SI 2026/758 comes into force alongside them. From that date the amended provisions read "six" where they previously read "three", so a claim whose relevant date falls on or after 1 October 2026 carries a six-month limit under the enactments listed above.

Claims whose relevant date falls before 1 October 2026 continue to be governed by the unamended three-month provisions. Neither instrument sets an end date for that older category, so the two regimes will run in parallel for as long as pre-October events are still capable of being litigated.

How This Affects You

This section is general information about what the instruments do, not advice about any particular claim.

For anyone whose dispute arises from something that has already happened, the position on 10 September 2026 is unchanged. The three-month limit applies, and it runs from the relevant date for that claim type, which for unfair dismissal is the effective date of termination and for a Part 5 Equality Act complaint is the date of the act or the end of a period of conduct extending over a period.

For employers, HR teams and advisers, the operational change is that from 1 October 2026 the exposure window on covered claim types is longer, which has implications for how long records, notes and correspondence remain relevant to a potential claim. The change is prospective by design.

Anyone identifying a deadline in a live matter should take advice on their own facts rather than working from a general date. The rules on what a tribunal may do where a claim is presented late are unchanged by these instruments and are not addressed here. Our explainer on how the employment tribunal system works gives the wider procedural background.

This article is general legal information about published UK legislation. It is not legal advice and does not create a solicitor and client relationship. Time limits in employment cases are strict and turn on the facts of the individual case. Anyone dealing with a live or potential claim should consult a solicitor or an adviser qualified in the relevant UK jurisdiction.

Related articles

• Employment tribunal time limits explained
• Making an unfair dismissal claim
• Discrimination in the workplace
• UK employment law hub

Last updated: 2026-09-10. This is a developing story; details verified as of 2026-09-10.