My daughter tells me she's ‘locked in’ with her A-level revision; I feel like I, too, have been ‘locked in’ with the recent flurry of ERA action. She will be released early June, but the ‘ERA lock in’ is a longer one for us all!  

However, to allay your alarm at this impending internment, I can report the following;

Steps to ERA implementation and an updated Hub 

With the first major implementation of the ERA provisions in April, we have added two more landing pages to our hub to help organisations prepare for change. The first is our Roadmap to implementation; this lays out in chronological order the changes the ERA will bring over the next 12-18 months and provides some key action points to consider. The second is our Implementation - get prepared document; this picks up from these key action points and outlines what documentation/advice we can provide to implement these points. This is not a comprehensive list, so please contact us with questions/requests for specific advice that may not be included in that list.

Consultations

Trade Union Access  - we looked at the recent government response to the previous consultation on this issue and its suggested draft code in our recent blog post, so do take a look.

Misuse of Non-Disclosure Agreements

The new s202A of the Employment Rights Act 1996 will render void any provision within an agreement between an employer and an employee which seeks to prevent that employee from speaking out about either relevant harassment or discrimination or their employer's response to the relevant harassment or discrimination. However, this will not apply to an ‘excepted agreement’ which the Government must define in regulations. It is this definition which is the subject of the consultation launched on 15 April 2026.  More details can be found on our consultation page.  Essentially the Government are ‘kicking’ around ideas; should an employee have had independent legal advice before signing it (like settlement agreements); should there be a cooling off period; should any excepted agreement be time limited; should individuals who are not workers or employees be entitled to the same protection; and who should the employee be able to talk to about the agreement after it is signed.  

With the publication of this consultation, the Government has now updated its implementation timetable to include these regulations on new excepted agreements.  We expect these to be in force sometime in 2027 - most likely either April or October.  

Equality action plans

The Government is to introduce mandatory action plans for reducing the gender pay gap and supporting employees experiencing menopause from April 2027 (for employers with over 250 employees). To provide more information on this, it has published updated guidance on how to create an action plan. The guidance contains 18 possible actions and employers must choose a minimum of two (one related to reducing the gender pay gap and the other to supporting employees experiencing menopause).    

Employers are invited to submit action plans from April 2026 voluntarily, and the deadline for doing this will be 4 April 2027 for private and voluntary organisations and 30 March 2027 for most public authorities.  

Ethnicity and disability reporting 

You may remember way back when the present Government came into power, in addition to an Employment Rights Bill, it also promised an Equality (Race and Disability) Bill. The Bill would require employers to report on their ethnicity and disability pay gaps - similar to gender pay gap reporting.  This latter Bill has still to be published, but the Government consulted on these reporting requirements last spring and has now published its response.  

The Government has confirmed that it will require employers with over 250 employees to report on their ethnicity and disability pay gaps. This reporting will run alongside the gender pay gap requirements and will use the same reporting mechanisms and dates. The same six measures used for gender pay gap reporting will be used and there will be specific provisions for data collection. For ethnicity data collection, the data will be collected using the same set of questions in the GSS ethnicity harmonised standard. At a minimum, the Government will require a binary comparison, but would hope that there would be further comparison with the five ethnic groups where possible. For disability reporting, again, the Government is looking for a binary approach and the definition of disability is to be the one in the Equality Act 2010.  

For larger employers, the ongoing reporting requirements are becoming increasingly onerous. For now, with no sign of a draft Bill, we are advising organisations with over 250 employees to focus on the gender pay gap and menopause action plans and address the further requirements as and when a Bill is published.  Of course, that's not to say that all organisations, whatever their size, shouldn't continue to pursue policies which encourage inclusivity and diversity throughout their business, including recruitment.    

For further information on any of the above, please get in touch.