Employment Tribunal Time Limits Have Doubled: What Your Audit Trail Must Hold

Reviewed by Simon Obee, Head of HR Advisory at Employment Hero, with tips and advice throughout.

Most employment tribunal claims now have a six-month time limit instead of three. The new employment tribunal time limit, (part of the Employment Rights Act 2025), applies to anything that happens on or after 1st October 2026, and Acas Early Conciliation can stretch the real window out to around nine months. The records you keep today are what you’ll rely on if a claim lands next spring.

From 1st October 2026, an employee who leaves your business has six months to bring a tribunal claim, not three.

It sounds procedural. It isn’t. Doubling the window changes what you need to be able to prove, how long you need to be able to prove it for, and how much of your decision-making can safely live in someone’s memory. Which is to say: none of it.

“The time limit for bringing employment tribunal claims is doubling from three months to six months. That’s going to have two big impacts. The number of claims is going to go up, and your record keeping is really going to have to be tip top, because you might be looking back on an incident that happened six months ago.” — Simon Obee, Head of HR Advisory, Employment Hero

What changed on 1st October 2026?

The time limit for bringing most employment tribunal claims has increased from three months less one day to six months less one day.

The change comes from section 152 and Schedule 12 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 (formerly the Employment Rights Bill), commenced by the Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 5 and Transitional Provisions) (Amendment) Regulations 2026. A second set of regulations extends the same six-month limit to claims the Act didn’t originally capture, including breach of contract and part-time and fixed-term worker claims.

Which claims this now covers

The six-month limit now applies across:

• Unfair dismissal and most other claims under the Employment Rights Act 1996
• Discrimination, harassment and victimisation under the Equality Act 2010
• Unlawful deduction from wages
• National Minimum Wage Act 1998 claims
• Working Time Regulations 1998 claims, including holiday pay
• TUPE claims
• Agency Workers Regulations 2010 claims
• Trade union and industrial action claims under TULRCA 1992
• Breach of contract, part-time worker and fixed-term employee claims

A small group of claims already ran to six months before October 1st, including statutory redundancy pay and equal pay. Those are unchanged. What’s happened is that the rest of the system has caught up with them.

It isn’t retrospective (but check the date carefully)

The six-month limit applies where the relevant date falls on or after 1st October 2026. For a dismissal, that’s the effective date of termination. For most other claims, it’s the date of the act or failure complained of.

Scenario	Time limit
Dismissal effective 30th September 2026	Three months less one day
Dismissal effective 1st October 2026	Six months less one day
Notice given in September, employment ends in October	Six months less one day — the effective date of termination is what counts
A single act of discrimination in August 2026	Three months less one day

The exception most employers miss

Where a claim relates to a series of acts rather than a single one, time runs from the last act in the series.

That matters more than it sounds. If an employee alleges a continuing course of conduct — ongoing discrimination or harassment is the usual example — and the last act happens on or after 1st October, the six-month limit applies to the whole series. Conduct from before 1st October can be pulled into a claim brought under the new, longer window.

So “it isn’t retrospective” is true for one-off events and unreliable as a general rule. If there’s a live, ongoing situation in your business that started before 1st October, treat it as being in scope.

The real window is longer than six months

Before an employee can lodge a claim, they have to notify Acas and go through Early Conciliation. Early Conciliation pauses the clock, and since 1st December 2025 the Acas conciliation period can run for up to 12 weeks.

Stack those together and the practical outside edge is closer to nine months from the event to a claim landing on your desk.

Your internal processes don’t pause anything

A grievance, a disciplinary process or an internal appeal doesn’t stop the clock. The limit runs from the relevant date regardless of what’s happening inside your business. It’s a common and expensive assumption — worth making sure your managers know it.

Why the shift?

Three months was often seen as too short for employees to process a dismissal, seek legal advice and start the conciliation process. By doubling the employment tribunal claim time limit, the system aims to give people more breathing room.

And then January 2027 arrives

From 1st January 2027, three further changes take effect under the Employment Rights Act 2025:

• The qualifying period for ordinary unfair dismissal drops from two years to six months. Anyone continuously employed on or before around 1st July 2026 gains protection immediately on 1st January.
• The cap on the compensatory award for ordinary unfair dismissal is removed entirely. Awards will be calculated on actual and projected losses, with no statutory ceiling.
• The qualifying period for requesting written reasons for a dismissal also drops to six months.

Read the two dates together and the picture is clear enough. From January, far more of your workforce can bring an unfair dismissal claim, the financial exposure on each one is uncapped, and they have six months plus conciliation to decide whether to.

Why employment tribunal time limit changes matter for employers

Put simply, these changes increase your exposure to risk. Let’s take a look at a few reasons why.

1. More claims, about older events

People who’d have run out of time now don’t. The government’s own impact assessment expects the wider reform package to generate thousands of additional Acas Early Conciliation referrals each year, with a meaningful share progressing to tribunal.

And the claims that do come are about older events. A claim arriving in March 2027 could concern a conversation in October 2026. The manager who had it may have left. The notes, if there are any, are what’s left.

Some tribunal regions are already listing final hearings years after a claim is issued. Add a longer window at the front and you can be defending a decision two or three years after you made it.

“How are you going to remember what happened six months ago? The managers involved in those decisions may have moved on. So you need really robust records of any performance management, disciplinary proceedings, grievances, redundancies, anything to do with termination of employment.” — Simon Obee, Head of HR Advisory, Employment Hero

2. Tighten up on procedures

With employees having rights to bring unfair dismissal claims earlier in their employment, now is the perfect time to make sure your procedures are rock solid from day one. A fair and documented process for every employee, including those on probation, builds a strong foundation. This strengthens your people management and makes your business a better, fairer place to work.

3. Culture and reputation

The thing with employment tribunals is that they aren’t private. They are public record and a tribunal involving a messy exit can damage your employer brand. To stay an attractive employer for prospective employees, it’s in your best interest to stay ahead of these changes.

What your audit trail must hold, by stage

The question to ask of every record isn’t “did we write something down?” It’s “would this stand up when someone reads it cold, eighteen months from now, with no one left who remembers the context?”

Hiring

• Interview notes for every candidate, not just the one you hired
• Scoring or assessment against the criteria you actually used
• A written reason for the decision
• Right to work evidence, with the date you checked it and the method you used

Right to work rules changed on the same day. Our right to work checks guide covers the new scope, the digital and manual routes and the evidence you need to keep.

Probation

• Objectives set and shared in writing at the start
• Dated check-in notes, not just a pass or fail at the end
• The reason for any extension, and confirmation it was communicated
• A written outcome

With unfair dismissal protection arriving at six months’ service in January, a six-month probation period no longer gives you the runway it used to. Our probationary period review template gives you a structure that produces a record as you go.

Performance management

• What the standard was, and evidence they knew it
• Dated records of each conversation, written at the time
• Support offered — training, adjustments, a reduced workload
• What improvement was required, by when, and what happened

Conduct and disciplinary

• The allegation as put to the employee, in writing
• Investigation notes and the evidence gathered
• The invitation letter, including the right to be accompanied
• Meeting notes, ideally agreed with the employee
• The decision, the reasons for it and the right of appeal
• The appeal, if there was one, and its outcome

Grievances

• The grievance as raised, in the employee’s own words
• What you investigated and who you spoke to
• The outcome letter and the reasoning behind it
• Any appeal and its outcome

Redundancy

• The business case and the pooling decision
• Selection criteria and completed scoring matrices
• Consultation records, individual and collective
• Alternative roles considered and offered
• Final selection rationale

Dismissal and exit

• The effective date of termination, unambiguously recorded
• Written reasons
• Final pay calculation and how you reached it
• Handover and exit conversation notes
• Any settlement discussions, correctly marked

A note on who’s covered. Several of the claim types now running to six months apply to workers and agency workers, not only employees. If you use contractors, casual staff or agency workers, apply the same record-keeping standard to them. The distinction won’t protect you.

Key steps to protect your business under the new time limit for unfair dismissal rules

Protecting your business against these changes can be simple as long as you are organised and proactive. Here are a few steps you can take to protect your business.

1. Review and update termination policies

Review your current policies and check there’s no mention that employees can’t claim unfair dismissal until they’ve been with you for two years. If it does mention this, your policy will be out of date come January 2027.

At the same time, update your disciplinary and dismissal policies to reflect the new rules. Communicate this thoroughly with management, so they know not only that it’s changed, but what this means in practice.

2. Strengthen documentation practices

If it isn’t written down, it didn’t happen. With fast-scaling businesses, documentation best practices can be the last thing on your mind. You have a quick chat with an underperforming employee in the break room, then another on Zoom. Then you decide it’s time to let them go — and there’s no paper trail.

3. Conduct fair and transparent terminations

A structured process is key to handling situations effectively and professionally. A fairness-first approach not only protects your business but also fosters a culture of transparency and respect.

1. Establish the facts before making a decision.
2. Invite the employee to a formal meeting in writing, letting them know they can bring a companion.
3. Give them a chance to state their case.
4. Make an objective decision based on evidence.
5. Always offer the right to appeal.

Notes written on the day, saved somewhere with a date on them, carry weight. A summary typed up months later when a claim arrives carries much less, and a tribunal will usually be able to tell the difference. The practical test: if every note about an employee was written after they left, you have a problem regardless of how accurate those notes are.

Following the Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures matters here too. A tribunal can adjust an award by up to 25% where an employer has unreasonably failed to follow it.

4. Provide post-termination support

How you exit someone from your business is just as important as how you hire them. A bad experience can leave a sour taste in the mouth and is a quick way to encourage them to seek a claim.

How long should you keep employment records?

Long enough to cover the whole exposure period, which is now considerably longer than most retention policies assume.

Work it through:

• Six months less one day to bring a claim
• Plus up to 12 weeks of Acas Early Conciliation
• Plus the time between a claim being issued and a final hearing, which in some regions is running to years

A retention period that only covers the window to bring a claim doesn’t cover the period you’ll need the records to defend one.

Add it up and the window to bring a claim runs to roughly nine months from the event. That’s your floor, not your target. A claim lodged at month nine still has to be defended, and hearings are currently listing well beyond that.

So twelve months after employment ends is the bare minimum for termination and dispute-related records, and it clears the claim window without touching the hearing timeline. Anything that was already contentious — a live grievance, a disputed dismissal, a redundancy someone challenged — should be kept for as long as that dispute could realistically run.

Balance that against UK GDPR. You can’t keep everything forever, and you shouldn’t. What you need is a written retention schedule that sets a defined period for each record type, applies it consistently and gets reviewed. Keeping records for a documented legal purpose is fine. Keeping them because nobody ever deletes anything isn’t.

What matters as much as the number is that you chose one deliberately and can say why.

Common mistakes to avoid under the new tribunal time limit rules

We’re all human at the end of the day, but there are some mistakes that can be completely avoided if you know what to look out for, including:

• Relying on memory: Half a year is long enough to forget the detail and keep the confidence. If it isn’t written down with a date on it, assume it didn’t happen.
• Dismissing just before six months’ service: From January, watch the statutory minimum notice period. Where an employee is dismissed shortly before reaching six months, one week of statutory notice can be added for unfair dismissal purposes, which can carry them over the threshold. Make the call early enough that it isn’t close.
• Thinking too small to be sued: The new employment tribunal claim time limit applies to everyone. From the corner shop to the FTSE 100.
• Rushing the process: Don’t let frustration drive the timeline. Stick to the procedure, even if it takes a few weeks longer.

“The businesses that are going to struggle are the ones putting this off for a later date. You need to be acting now.” — Simon Obee, Head of HR Advisory, Employment Hero

How Employment Hero helps

Employment Hero keeps employee records, policies and process documentation in one place, so the paper trail builds itself as you go rather than getting reconstructed when you need it.

• Centralised employee records with dated history, so a decision made in October is still evidenced in March
• Guided performance, disciplinary and termination workflows that prompt the steps in order
• Policy templates reviewed against current UK employment law, with version history
• Access to HR advisers when a situation gets complicated

It helps you build a defensible record. It doesn’t make the decisions for you — that’s still your call, and it should be.

Disclaimer: This guide is general information only, current as at 1st October 2026, and is provided in good faith to assist UK employers. It isn’t legal advice and shouldn’t be relied on as a substitute for it. Employment law changes frequently. Check the current position with a qualified adviser before acting.