UK employment law is moving the question an employer has to answer from whether it had a policy to whether it can show what it did and when. HR teams that treat records as an afterthought will feel that shift first, and HR technology buyers should price it in.
Three dates, one demand
Look at what the government’s Employment Rights Act timeline and Acas have put in front of UK employers this month. On 1 October the tribunal claim window for most claims went from three months to six. On 30 October the timeline lists a duty to take “all reasonable steps” to prevent sexual harassment. Flexible working, expected in autumn 2027, will require employers to follow mandatory consultation steps before refusing a request and to explain why a refusal is reasonable.
These are three different areas of law, and I read them as one demand. Each asks an employer to produce evidence of its own conduct. A longer claim window means the evidence has to survive longer. A reasonable steps duty means the steps have to be provable. A consultation requirement means the conversation has to be traceable.
The standard is already written down
Baroness Jones of Whitchurch, the Acas Chair, put the flexible working version plainly in the foreword to the draft code: “Employers will need to approach requests with an open mind, consider relevant evidence and clearly explain their decision.” Evidence and explanation are the operative words. Acas adds that employment tribunals must take its code into account where it is relevant to a case. A manager who refuses a request after a hallway chat has made a decision, but has not left anything a tribunal can read.
Acas is equally direct about the clock. Its guidance says going through a grievance, disciplinary or appeal procedure does not change the time limit. An employer that runs a careful internal process still faces a claim window that keeps running while it does.
The strongest objection
The best counter-argument comes from Acas’s own number. Flexible working matters account for less than 1% of the early conciliation notifications and tribunal claims Acas receives. An HR leader could reasonably say the exposure is small, the paperwork is real, and the right response is to wait for the final regulations before changing anything.
I disagree for two reasons. First, the low share describes a regime without a reasonableness test and without mandatory consultation steps. Acas itself says it wants to keep the share low by getting employers to address concerns early and communicate clearly. That is a statement about conduct an employer has to be able to demonstrate. Second, the work involved is the same work regardless of whether claims rise. A record of what was asked, what evidence was considered, what alternatives were explored and why the decision was reached is a few fields in a case tool. It is far cheaper to build before a dispute than to reconstruct after one.
What buyers should ask vendors
This is where the technology angle matters. A system that holds contracts, payroll and absence does not necessarily hold a decision record. I would put four questions to any vendor or internal owner before the January dismissal changes arrive.
- Does each case record carry an event date, not just a date raised? Acas’s own examples show the date of the event deciding which limit applies until late December.
- How long does the system keep audit logs and attached notes, and who can change that setting? Anything shorter than the new six-month window is worth fixing.
- Can a manager’s reasoning on a request be captured at the moment of decision, with the evidence considered attached?
- Can the business show, per measure, which steps it took against sexual harassment and when?
None of this requires new categories of software. It requires that existing case, absence and policy tools be configured to hold the reasoning, not only the outcome.
Where I could be wrong
The final flexible working regulations are not yet published, and the government timeline carries a caveat that future dates remain subject to parliamentary processes and may change. The ministerial power on harassment steps could produce a list that is narrower than I expect. If so, some of the record-keeping I am recommending will turn out to be extra. I would still take that trade. A longer claim window is already in force, and the cost of an unneeded field is lower than the cost of an unanswerable question from a tribunal.
UK employers have until the end of the year to find out which of their records actually answer those questions. The place to start is the event date on the case file. Our overview of the October to January changes sets out the dates, and the union notice duty is another dated item on the same government timeline.
Source: Acas, draft Code of Practice on requests for flexible working
