Notice Periods UK: Statutory Minimums (s.86)

Notice periods in UK employment are set by law, not just by contract. Section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 fixes the statutory minimum both an employer and an employee must give, and no contract can go below it.

Statutory minimum notice: the law behind it

Section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 sets a floor, not a fixed number. It applies once an employee has been continuously employed for one month. Below that threshold, the Act itself does not require any notice, though a contract may still promise some. Once the one-month mark is passed, the employer's minimum notice grows with service, while the employee's minimum notice stays fixed at one week regardless of how long they have worked there. These are legal minimums only; many contracts specify longer periods, particularly for senior or long-serving staff.

How much notice an employer must give

The employer's statutory minimum rises by one week for every complete year of service, up to a maximum of 12 weeks once the employee has 12 or more years' service. The table below shows the statutory floor at each stage.

The cap means a 12-year employee and a 30-year employee both get the same 12-week statutory minimum. A contract can promise more than this, but never less.

How much notice an employee must give

An employee's statutory minimum notice to resign is at least one week once they have one month's continuous service. Unlike the employer's obligation, this does not increase with length of service; it stays at one week no matter how long someone has worked for the employer. Many contracts of employment set a longer notice period for the employee too, particularly at management level, and where that is agreed in writing it is enforceable provided it does not undercut the statutory minimum in the other direction.

Pay during notice

During the notice period, an employee is normally entitled to their normal pay for any time they are ready and willing to work, whether or not the employer actually provides work. Statutory notice pay rules also protect this entitlement in situations that would otherwise reduce pay, including where the employee is off sick or on maternity leave during their notice period; in those cases they are still entitled to at least their normal average pay for the notice period, not a reduced sick-pay or maternity-pay rate. Contractual notice pay terms can be more generous but not less.

Payment in lieu of notice (PILON) vs garden leave

Employers sometimes end employment before the notice period is worked, using one of two different mechanisms.

• PILON (payment in lieu of notice): employment ends immediately, and the employer pays a sum covering what the employee would have earned during the notice period. Whether PILON is available depends on the contract and how it is taxed depends on the circumstances.
• Garden leave: the employee remains employed and continues to be paid throughout the notice period, but is told not to attend work or to carry out normal duties. This keeps restrictive covenants and confidentiality obligations running for longer than PILON does, which is why employers with senior or sensitive roles often prefer it.

A full comparison of when each is used, and how they interact with restrictive covenants, is covered on the garden leave and PILON page.

Notice, redundancy and dismissal

Statutory notice applies whenever employment ends by resignation, dismissal, or redundancy, not just resignation. Where redundancy is the reason, notice runs alongside (and is separate from) any statutory redundancy payment the employee may also be owed; see the statutory redundancy pay and redundancy pay pages for how that calculation works. Where a dismissal is disputed, whether proper notice was given (or paid in lieu) can be relevant to an unfair dismissal claim, though notice and unfair dismissal are legally separate issues.

Estimate your notice period

The statutory formula in this article can be applied directly to work out an employer's minimum notice. Use the UK notice period calculator to estimate the statutory minimum based on length of service; it mirrors the s.86 formula but does not replace checking the actual contract, which may specify a longer period.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland has its own employment legislation rather than the Employment Rights Act 1996, but the statutory minimum notice provisions are near-identical in substance to the GB rules described above. Disputes in Northern Ireland go to the Industrial Tribunal (and, for discrimination-type claims, the Fair Employment Tribunal), not the Employment Tribunal used in Great Britain, and the enforcement and conciliation body is the Labour Relations Agency (LRA) rather than ACAS.

This article is for general information only and is not legal advice. Notice period rules can depend on the specific wording of an employment contract, so anyone facing a dismissal, redundancy, or resignation dispute should check their contract and consider independent advice from ACAS, Citizens Advice, or a solicitor. For the full picture of UK employment rights, see the UK Employment Law hub and the United Kingdom hub.