Employees already have the statutory right to request flexible working and employers have the right to refuse this. The UK Government consulted in February 2026 about making changes to the employer’s grounds for rejecting a flexible working request and have now responded with a plan of action.
The Employment Rights Act 2025 in Great Britain legislated for changes to the processes an employer must follow when refusing an employee’s request to work flexibly. A consultation followed in February 2026 seeking views on the new process, all with the intention of improving access to flexible working in a way that works for both employee and employers.
The UK Government, via the Department Business, Innovation, Science and Trade (BIST) has now responded, paving the way for secondary legislation to implement the provisions in the 2025 Act. ICB focuses on the changes that will go ahead rather than outline all the proposals in the consultation, some of which will not go ahead.
In the first instance, the response says that secondary legislation will make these changes from ‘Autumn 2027’, presumably October which is the usual date for employment law changes.
There are two main changes:
1. Employers will have to follow a process when handling flexible working requests, for example a meeting with the employee designed to reach agreement. If the request is not workable, the meeting should explore alternatives, if possible. This needs to take place within a two-month period; and
2. The employer can only refuse a request if it is reasonable to refuse because one of the grounds have been met (section 1ZA of the2025 Act). These are, for example, that the employer can demonstrate a negative cost effect if flexible working was to be agreed or that granting a request will have a negative business impact
For Bookkeepers
Acas will consult on a revised Code of Practice on requesting to work flexibly. Hopefully, they will produce guidance on the ‘reasonableness test’, i.e. the grounds that are reasonable for an employer to refuse a request.
The new legislation does not mean that employers cannot refuse a request to work flexibly. There is just more emphasis on justifying why the request cannot be accommodated.