How the April 2026 Employment Law Changes Affect Your Polices
Firms, especially those providing employment law services, are aware that several employment law changes are now in force with effect from 6 April 2026, with more to come in October. However, regardless of your areas of expertise, these updates require all firms to update their employee handbook to ensure you do not fall foul of the new regulations and requirements.
This is not an optional exercise. Many of these changes affect statutory rights, which means your existing policies may now conflict with these legislative changes if they have not been revised.
Changes To Your Employee Handbook
Below, our compliance team has summarised the recent changes and the areas of your handbook that are most likely to be affected.
- Annual Leave/Holiday Pay Records – From 6th April 2026, employers are required to retain holiday records for six years. If your handbook references how the firm manages annual leave and holiday pay, this record-keeping obligation needs to be reflected. This is not an overly complex addition, but it does need to be included.
- Harassment (incl. Sexual Harassment) and Bullying Policy and Procedure – Reports of sexual misconduct are now expressly protected under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA). In practice, this means your Whistleblowing Policy needs to confirm that reports of sexual misconduct fall within its scope. Similarly, staff should be made aware that your Harassment and Bullying policy cross-references this protection.
- Day One Rights: Maternity, Paternity and Parental Bereavement Leave – These are areas where several policies need to be updated simultaneously. Previously, several statutory leave entitlements required qualifying periods of continuous employment before an employee was eligible to access them. However, since the latest employment law updates, this is no longer the case for maternity leave, paternity leave, and parental bereavement leave. Employees are now entitled to these from day one of employment. Your handbook must be updated to remove any reference to qualifying periods in these sections and replace them with the updated position.
- Shared Parental Leave – The new day one right for paternity leave extends to the Shared Parental Leave provisions. If your employee handbook deals with shared parental leave separately, that section must be updated and consistent with the updated paternity leave position.
- Neurodiversity: An Optional, but Increasingly Expected Addition – While this is not a statutory requirement, adding a Neurodiversity Policy to your handbook is worth considering, as these are becoming increasingly expected in well-managed law firms. Awareness of conditions such as ADHD, autism, dyslexia and dyspraxia in workplace settings has grown considerably, and a clear policy signals that the firm takes its obligations under the Equality Act 2010 seriously. It also provides employees, supervisors, and department heads with the necessary framework for understanding how the firm approaches reasonable adjustments and support.
The Importance of Compliant Handbooks
All employers are expected to have an employee handbook that sets out how the business complies with the various legislation and regulations impacting staff employment. In addition, in 2023, the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) updated the Code of Conduct for Firms and Individuals to ensure that Law Firms and Supervisors in Law Firms provide their staff with an environment that encourages good management practices.
Therefore, an out-of-date employee handbook does not just create exposure to employment tribunal claims. It can also result in an SRA investigation for regulatory breach.
Ensuring the Employee Handbook is updated in line with current employment and legislation/regulations is part of demonstrating that the firm has proper systems in place. It not only provides transparency to those in the firm on how they will be managed and what action to take if issues arise, but also provides processes aimed at protecting both the firm and its staff.
For firms that are already on our handbook update service, our team will be in touch to carry out these amendments for you. No action is needed on your part other than flagging if you would like to include the optional Neurodiversity Policy.
Our Employee Handbook Drafting and Maintenance Service:
How Our Compliance Teams Can Help
If your firm does not currently have a compliant handbook in place, or if your existing handbook has not been reviewed for some time, now is the right moment to address that.
We have developed a handbook specifically designed for law firms, setting out the requirements of the employment laws and dovetailing SRA expectations and requirements.
At the Regulation and Compliance Office (RACO), our Employee Handbook Drafting and Maintenance Service has been devised to provide law firms with an effective solution for the implementation and management of their procedures for managing their staff.
The service is provided in two parts:
- An initial review of the current documentation and the drafting of new policies or adapting existing policies.
- Ongoing updates and reviews as part of an annual maintenance package
With pricing starting from £3000, this is a cost-effective step that provides long-term protection for your business. For detailed information on this service, download the full service brochure or contact a member of our team via the details below.
Contact Us
To ask any questions about the Regulation and Compliance Office and how we can support your Law Firm, please call us on 0203 985 8550, complete the online enquiry form, or email us at info@regulationandcomplianceoffice.co.uk
