Last month saw the publication of the government’s response to the consultation on improving access to flexible working. Acas has now published an updated draft Code of Practice on handling flexible working requests. The draft gives the first indication of what employers will need to do to show that refusing a request is reasonable under the Employment Rights Act 2025. We look at what’s new.
Under the new flexible working framework introduced by the Employment Rights Act 2025, an employer may only refuse a flexible working request if it is reasonable to do so. Following consultation, the government has now confirmed the new mandatory process employers must follow before refusing a request, which we discuss in more detail here. As expected, Acas has now published a draft Code of Practice for consultation setting out the new statutory process in practice and providing a first look at what the new reasonableness test will look like.
As a reminder, although breach of the Acas Code does not have a stand-alone remedy, it will be taken into account by employment tribunals in deciding these types of claims.
Currently employers must handle flexible working requests in a reasonable manner, and any refusal needs to be based on one or more of the eight statutory business reasons. The Employment Rights Act 2025 goes further by requiring employers to show why it was reasonable to rely on that ground. As we have noted previously, the impact of...
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