Tribunal Time Limits Rose to Six Months on 1 October 2026

Employment Tribunal Time Limits Rose to Six Months on 1 October 2026

The Secretary of State made SI 2026/954 on 1 September 2026. Regulation 3 brought section 152 of, and Schedule 12 to, the Employment Rights Act 2025 into force on 1 October 2026, extending the time limit for instituting most employment tribunal claims from three months to six. The revised text of section 152 on legislation.gov.uk now carries the commencement annotation "S. 152 in force at 1.10.2026 by S.I. 2026/954, reg. 3 (with reg. 4)".

Information last verified on 2 October 2026.

Status: In force. 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, and regulation 3 brought section 152 of, and Schedule 12 to, the Employment Rights Act 2025 into force on 1 October 2026. The three-month limit continues to govern any claim whose 'relevant date' falls before 1 October 2026, which still covers almost every dispute that was already live when the extension took effect.

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. Separately from Schedule 12, the tribunal's breach of contract jurisdiction is split three ways: SI 2026/759 extends to England and Wales only, a draft Order of the Scottish Ministers would cover Scotland from 9 November 2026 if it is made, and nothing in this package reaches Northern Ireland on that point.

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 was the only part of SI 2026/954 operative before 1 October 2026.

SI 2026/954 was not the only instrument to come into force 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 came 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.

Two further instruments came into force on the same day, and both sections below return to them. The Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (England and Wales) (Amendment) Order 2026, SI 2026/759, moved the tribunal's breach of contract jurisdiction in England and Wales. The Employee Study and Training (Procedural Requirements) (Amendment) Regulations 2026, SI 2026/473, moved one further time limit. The official Explanatory Memorandum to SI 2026/759 treats all four as a single package commencing on 1 October 2026.

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.

Breach of contract moved separately, and only in England and Wales

Neither SI 2026/954 nor SI 2026/758 touches the tribunal's breach of contract jurisdiction. A third instrument does. The Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (England and Wales) (Amendment) Order 2026, SI 2026/759, was made by the Lord Chancellor on 6 July 2026 under sections 3, 8(3) and 41(4) of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996, signed by Sarah Sackman, Minister of State at the Ministry of Justice, and came into force on 1 October 2026. A draft had been laid before and approved by a resolution of each House of Parliament under section 41(2)(a) of the 1996 Act. Article 1(3) states that the Order extends to England and Wales.

Article 2 is a single substitution. In article 7 of the Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (England and Wales) Order 1994, SI 1994/1623, headed "time within which proceedings may be brought", paragraphs (a) and (b) now read "six" where they read "three". Article 7 is the limit for an employee's contract claim, which the 1994 Order describes as a claim for damages for breach of a contract of employment, or for a sum due under such a contract, where the claim arises or is outstanding on the termination of the employment.

The transitional provision is not the 'relevant date' scheme used by SI 2026/954, and the difference matters. Article 3(2) provides that the amendment applies where the effective date of termination of the contract giving rise to the claim occurs on or after 1 October 2026, or, where there is no effective date of termination, where the last day upon which the employee worked in the employment which has terminated occurs on or after that date. Article 3(1) defines the effective date of termination for contracts ended by notice, contracts ended without notice, and limited-term contracts that terminate on the limiting event without being renewed.

One practical warning for anyone checking this directly. As at 2 October 2026 the revised text of the 1994 Order on legislation.gov.uk is still served as the version valid from 31 December 2020, and article 7 there still reads three months with no annotation for SI 2026/759. That is ordinary revision lag behind a very recent amendment rather than evidence that the amendment failed, but it means the amending Order, not the revised 1994 text, is the thing to read.

Scotland is a different answer on the same date, and this is the part most summaries of the reform leave out. Breach of contract claims in Scotland run under a separate instrument, the Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (Scotland) Order 1994, SI 1994/1624, and article 7 of that Order still reads three months. A draft Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (Amendment) (Scotland) Order 2026 has been laid before the Scottish Parliament under section 41(2)(a) of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996. It is made by the Scottish Ministers rather than by a UK minister, article 1 of the draft gives a commencement date of 9 November 2026, article 2(2) makes the same substitution in article 7(a) and (b) of the Scottish 1994 Order, and article 3(1) carries the same effective date of termination trigger as the England and Wales Order.

That draft is a proposal, not law. As at 2 October 2026 its signature block and its made date are both blank, and a title search of 2026 Scottish Statutory Instruments for 'Extension of Jurisdiction' returns no made instrument. Anyone with a Scottish contract claim should work on three months until the Order is actually made, and should not read the 9 November 2026 date as settled.

Northern Ireland is a third position again, and this article does not state what its contract limit is. What can be said is that none of these instruments reaches it. SI 2026/759 extends to England and Wales, the draft Order is a Scottish instrument, Schedule 12 to the 2025 Act contains no breach of contract provision at all, and SI 2026/473 extends to England and Wales and Scotland. A contract claim in a Northern Ireland industrial tribunal has to be checked against the Northern Ireland rules rather than read across from this reform.

The fourth instrument, and the claims that did not move

The package is larger than two instruments. Paragraph 11.1 of the official Explanatory Memorandum to SI 2026/759, published by the Department for Business and Trade, names all of it: this instrument, the Employment Tribunal (Extension of Time Limits) (Miscellaneous Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2026, the Employee Study and Training (Procedural Requirements) (Amendment) Regulations 2026, and section 152 and Schedule 12 to the Employment Rights Act 2025, with a planned commencement date of 1 October 2026 for all of them.

The third of those is SI 2026/473, made on 28 April 2026, laid before Parliament the following day and in force on 1 October 2026. It extends to England and Wales and Scotland, and regulation 2 takes regulation 17(2)(a) and (b) of the Employee Study and Training (Procedural Requirements) Regulations 2010 from three months to six. The right it protects is narrow: the complaint is about an employer's failure, or threat to fail, to comply with an employee's right to be accompanied at a meeting to discuss study or training. Regulation 3 disapplies the extension where that failure, or threat to fail, occurs before 1 October 2026.

Something is also absent from all four instruments, and a reader who assumes everything moved will miscount it. Redundancy payment claims did not change on 1 October 2026. Section 164(1) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 already made the right to a redundancy payment conditional on one of the four events it lists happening "before the end of the period of six months beginning with the relevant date", and section 164 appears nowhere in Schedule 12. Equal pay is the same: the qualifying period in section 129(3) of the Equality Act 2010 is six months in every case in its table, and reading the texts in force on 30 September 2026 and on 1 October 2026 side by side shows the same six months on both dates.

That is not an oversight. It is the stated point of the reform. Paragraph 5.1 of the Explanatory Memorandum describes the Government as implementing the Law Commission's recommendation to raise the limit from three months to six, "bringing the time limit for all claims in line with the time limit for statutory redundancy and equal pay claims". Paragraph 7.4 records that the Law Commission published the report containing that recommendation in April 2020, following a consultation on employment law hearing structures in England and Wales that ran from September 2018 to January 2019. The reform brought the rest of the system up to a standard that two statutory claim types had been using all along.

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.

How the six months is counted

The statutory wording counts inclusively, which is why advisers describe the deadline as six months less a day rather than as the same date six months later. Section 111(2)(a) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, in its text in force from 1 October 2026, bars a tribunal from considering an unfair dismissal complaint unless it is presented "before the end of the period of six months beginning with the effective date of termination". Section 123(1)(a) of the Equality Act 2010 uses the same construction for a discrimination complaint at work: "the period of 6 months starting with the date of the act to which the complaint relates".

What does the work in both is the phrase that opens the period. "Beginning with" and "starting with" each include the day they name, so day one is the date of the dismissal or of the act itself, not the day after it. Because the first day sits inside the count, the period ends on the day before the corresponding date six months on. Nothing about that arithmetic changed on 1 October 2026; it is the same inclusive counting that produced the familiar three months less a day under the old limit, applied to a longer period. This article does not calculate anyone's deadline, and a date should come from advice on the actual facts rather than from a general rule.

Early conciliation still stops the clock

Early conciliation runs through provisions that sit outside the limits Schedule 12 amended, which is why the substitution of six for three leaves the mechanism intact.

Section 207B of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and section 140B of the Equality Act 2010, both in their texts in force on 1 October 2026, work the same way. Each defines Day A as the day the claimant complies with section 18A(1) of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996, the requirement to contact Acas before instituting proceedings, and Day B as the day the claimant receives, or is treated as receiving, the certificate issued under that section. Subsection (3) of each provision then stops the clock: in working out when the time limit expires, "the period beginning with the day after Day A and ending with Day B is not to be counted". Subsection (4) of each adds a floor. If the limit would otherwise expire during the period beginning with Day A and ending one month after Day B, it expires at the end of that period instead.

Two cross-references confirm the machinery still attaches to the extended limits. Section 111(2A) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 provides that section 207B applies for the purposes of section 111(2)(a), the unfair dismissal limit that now reads six months. Section 140B(1) of the Equality Act 2010 applies where a time limit is set by section 123(1)(a), the discrimination limit that now reads six months. Schedule 12 did not alter either cross-reference, so conciliation extends the six-month period in the way it extended the three-month one. The tribunal's own discretion sits on top of that: section 207B(5) preserves the power to extend a limit as already extended by the section, and section 123(1)(b) of the Equality Act 2010 is untouched.

Early conciliation is administered by Acas, the statutory conciliation service, and its own guidance at acas.org.uk is the official starting point. How these rules land on a particular set of dates is a question for advice rather than for a general explainer.

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 a four-instrument package 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. Every instrument in the package is drafted so that the extension attaches to the underlying event rather than to the act of claiming, whether that event is a relevant date, an effective date of termination or a dated failure to comply. 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 this autumn 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.

The jurisdictional picture is the part most worth slowing down on, because the reform did not arrive everywhere at once. On 1 October 2026 a worker in England or Wales saw both tracks move: the statutory claims through Schedule 12 and the contract claims through SI 2026/759. A worker in Scotland saw only the statutory track move, because the contract limit there sits in a Scottish instrument that the Scottish Ministers have so far only proposed to amend. A worker in Northern Ireland saw neither of the mainstream statutory limits move at all. Three jurisdictions, three different answers, under one headline date that is complete for only one of them.

The Government's own expectations are on the record, and they are forecasts rather than outcomes. The impact assessment summarised at paragraph 9.2 of the Explanatory Memorandum to SI 2026/759 puts the Equivalent Annual Net Direct Cost to business at £13.6m, attributing it largely to familiarisation with the new rules plus an estimated 5 per cent increase in tribunal claims, and assesses the quantifiable annual direct cost to households at £5.3m. Paragraph 9.4 adds an estimated £5.3m recurring public sector cost, made up of Acas conciliation on the extra cases and HMCTS capacity to hear them. Paragraph 10.1 commits to a post-implementation review five years after commencement. Whether a doubled window produces a 5 per cent rise in claims, or something quite different, is an empirical question nobody can answer on 2 October 2026.

What Happens Next

On 1 October 2026, section 152 of and Schedule 12 to the Employment Rights Act 2025 came into force, and SI 2026/758, SI 2026/759 and SI 2026/473 came 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.

One further change is proposed and not yet made. The draft Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (Amendment) (Scotland) Order 2026 has been laid before the Scottish Parliament and, if approved and made, would extend the Scottish breach of contract limit to six months with effect from 9 November 2026, on the same effective date of termination trigger SI 2026/759 uses in England and Wales. Until it is made, article 7 of the Scottish 1994 Order continues to read three months, and that date should be treated as a proposal to check rather than a deadline to plan around.

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 happened before 1 October 2026, the position 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: 2026-10-02. This is a developing story; details verified as of 2026-10-02.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is the six-month employment tribunal time limit in force now?

Yes, for claims whose relevant date falls on or after 1 October 2026. SI 2026/954 was made on 1 September 2026, and regulation 3 brought section 152 of, and Schedule 12 to, the Employment Rights Act 2025 into force on 1 October 2026. Where the relevant date is before 1 October 2026, the three-month limit still applies.

Which claims move to six months under SI 2026/954?

Those in the enactments listed in Schedule 12 to the Employment Rights Act 2025. They include unfair dismissal under section 111 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, protection of wages under section 23, discrimination at work under section 123(1)(a) of the Equality Act 2010, a long list of time off and family leave rights in the Employment Rights Act 1996, eleven provisions of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992, and section 126 of the Pension Schemes Act 1993.

What is the difference between SI 2026/758 and SI 2026/954?

SI 2026/758, made on 6 July 2026, amends seven sets of secondary regulations covering part-time workers, fixed-term employees, information and consultation, blacklists, two zero-hours instruments and NHS recruitment protected disclosures. SI 2026/954, made on 1 September 2026, commences Schedule 12 to the Employment Rights Act 2025, which is what moves the primary statutes including unfair dismissal and Equality Act discrimination. Both came into force on 1 October 2026.

If my dismissal took effect in September 2026, do I get six months?

Under regulation 4(1) of SI 2026/954 the Schedule 12 amendments do not apply where the relevant date occurs before 1 October 2026, and the Schedule to that instrument gives the effective date of termination as the relevant date for a section 111(1) unfair dismissal complaint. A termination taking effect in September 2026 therefore falls outside the extension on the face of the instrument. Anyone in that position should take advice on their own facts.

Did tribunal breach of contract time limits change on 1 October 2026?

In England and Wales, yes, but under a different instrument from the ones that moved the statutory claims. SI 2026/759 was made on 6 July 2026 by the Lord Chancellor and came into force on 1 October 2026, and article 2 substitutes six for three in article 7(a) and (b) of the Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (England and Wales) Order 1994. Article 1(3) limits its extent to England and Wales. Its transitional rule is its own: article 3(2) applies the extension where the effective date of termination of the contract giving rise to the claim falls on or after 1 October 2026, or, where there is no effective date of termination, where the last day the employee worked falls on or after that date. Neither SI 2026/954 nor SI 2026/758 deals with contract claims.

Has the breach of contract time limit changed in Scotland?

Not as at 2 October 2026. Article 7 of the Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (Scotland) Order 1994 still reads three months. A draft Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (Amendment) (Scotland) Order 2026, made by the Scottish Ministers rather than by a UK minister, has been laid before the Scottish Parliament and would come into force on 9 November 2026, substituting six for three in article 7(a) and (b) on the same effective date of termination trigger. It remains a draft: its made date and signature block are blank, and a title search of 2026 Scottish Statutory Instruments returns no made instrument of that name. Anyone with a Scottish contract claim should treat three months as the position until the Order is made.

Does Acas early conciliation still extend the time limit now that it is six months?

Yes. Section 207B of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and section 140B of the Equality Act 2010, in their texts in force on 1 October 2026, both stop the clock for the period beginning with the day after Day A, the day the claimant contacts Acas under section 18A(1) of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996, and ending with Day B, the day the conciliation certificate is received or treated as received. If the limit would otherwise expire between Day A and one month after Day B, it expires at the end of that period instead. Section 111(2A) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 confirms that section 207B applies to the unfair dismissal limit, and section 140B(1) applies to the section 123(1)(a) discrimination limit. Schedule 12 changed the number of months, not this machinery. Acas is the official body for early conciliation and its guidance is at acas.org.uk.

Did redundancy payment claims move to six months?

No, because they were already there. Section 164(1) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 makes the right to a redundancy payment conditional on one of the four events it lists happening before the end of the period of six months beginning with the relevant date, and section 164 is not amended by Schedule 12. Equal pay is the same: the qualifying period in section 129(3) of the Equality Act 2010 was six months both before and after 1 October 2026. Paragraph 5.1 of the Explanatory Memorandum to SI 2026/759 describes the reform as bringing all claims in line with the limit that already applied to statutory redundancy and equal pay claims.

Why is the limit described as six months less a day?

Because the statutory period is counted inclusively. Section 111(2)(a) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 counts the period of six months beginning with the effective date of termination, and section 123(1)(a) of the Equality Act 2010 counts the period of 6 months starting with the date of the act. The first day of the period is the date of the dismissal or of the act itself, so the period ends on the day before the corresponding date six months later. The same inclusive counting produced the old three months less a day. This article does not calculate any individual deadline.

How many instruments made up the 1 October 2026 change?

Four, according to paragraph 11.1 of the Explanatory Memorandum to SI 2026/759: section 152 and Schedule 12 to the Employment Rights Act 2025, commenced by SI 2026/954; SI 2026/758; SI 2026/759 itself; and the Employee Study and Training (Procedural Requirements) (Amendment) Regulations 2026, SI 2026/473, which took regulation 17(2) of the 2010 Regulations from three months to six.

Do these changes apply in Northern Ireland?

SI 2026/758 states at regulation 1(3) that it extends to England and Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland legislates separately on employment, and its main employment statutes are not amended, so unfair dismissal and discrimination claims there are unaffected. Within Schedule 12, section 158(5)(a) of the Employment Rights Act 2025 makes paragraph 9(3) and (4) extend to Northern Ireland only: paragraph 9(3) inserts a new regulation 27AA into the Transnational Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 1999 for industrial tribunals in Northern Ireland and retains a three-month limit, and paragraph 9(4) makes consequential cross-reference amendments to regulation 27B of those Regulations. Section 152 of the Act nonetheless states that Schedule 12 increases time limits in industrial tribunals in Northern Ireland in certain cases, because section 158(4) gives every other amendment the same extent as the provision it amends. Paragraph 19 is an example: it moves regulation 26(6) of the Merchant Shipping (Maritime Labour Convention) (Hours of Work) Regulations 2018 from three months to six, and regulation 4 of those Regulations applies them in Northern Ireland with industrial tribunal read for employment tribunal.