Employment Law Digest November 2025: Extension of time limits for bringing Employment Tribunal claims
3rd November, 2025
Jacqueline Knight
Solicitor | Employment
+44 (0) 330 137 3455
+44 (0) 784 526 6476
One of these proposals, currently under review at the House of Lords amendment stage, is for the length of time an employee has to submit a claim to the Employment Tribunal to be extended from the current three months (in most circumstances) to a proposed six months. This extension to the time limit for bringing a claim has been called for by various groups, including the Women and Equalities Committee and the Law Commission, for some time.
Whilst this amendment will increase the waiting period for employers anxious to know whether an employee will submit a claim, the government is keen to emphasise that it allows additional time for the dispute to be potentially resolved. Notwithstanding this, it will inevitably mean a lengthening of the already long timescale for a claim to get to a hearing, and the disadvantages arising from memories of the event fading and key witnesses potentially moving on.
Despite the proposed extension of the time limit for a claim, there are no proposals at present to amend the Early Conciliation process deadline. The government has stated that it will look at this. It should be noted, however, that this is a measure which could be provided for by secondary legislation and does not therefore have to pass through Parliament.
At present it is anticipated that these proposals will come into force in October 2026.
Equality Action Plan
The Employment Rights Bill, introduced by the government in October 2024 and currently under review at the House of Lords amendments stage, includes the introduction of a requirement for all companies with a workforce of more than 250 employees to produce and publish an action plan to address gender inequalities within their workforce.
This proposal goes beyond the current requirement to merely publish gender pay gap data, since research has suggested that as many as half of the companies publishing this information do not have plans to address the inequalities identified. Under the new proposals, companies will be required to formulate and publish a targeted and measurable action plan fulfilling certain criteria, including:
- The content of the plan
- How the plan will be published
- How frequently the plan is to be revised and re-published
- Who within the organisation has to approve the plan before it is published
The proposals include a definition of gender equality, as being measures which are “related to advancing equality of opportunity between male and female employees”. This is further defined as “addressing the gender pay gap”, and “supporting employees going through the menopause”. It should be noted that this does not introduce any form of requirement to actually address inequalities.
The minimum time for review of the plan and re-publishing the data is every 12 months. To assist employers in formulating the plan, the government will provide information on targeted actions that evidence suggests have been effective when implemented in the workplace.
Note too that companies will also be required to state which organisations they outsource to so that the efforts of these organisations can be included in the targeted action plan.
The government plans to have these provisions come into force some time in 2027.