With effect from 1 October 2026, the time limit for bringing almost all Employment Tribunal (ET) claims has doubled from 3 months to 6 months. This may not sound particularly interesting to anyone other than an employment lawyer. However, there are very good reasons why employers should be paying attention to this development and updating their procedures accordingly.

Exactly what is happening?

As a result of recent changes in the law, employees who want to bring an ET claim will have up to 6 months in which to start their claim. This more generous time limit applies to any dismissal (or other act complained of), as long as it occurs (or is deemed to have occurred) on or after 1 October 2026.

In the vast majority of cases, claimants will start the claims process by completing and submitting an Acas Early Conciliation notification form. Filing a notification form on the last day of the 6-month window is enough to preserve and comply with the ET time limit. Thereafter, Early Conciliation discussions can take place over a period of as long as 12 weeks. Then, claimants typically have yet another month (after the end of the Early Conciliation period) in which to submit a valid ET Claim Form. Add all of this together and an unfair dismissal claim submitted to the tribunal roughly 10 months after an employee left their employment could now be entirely valid. Factor in some administrative delay in the tribunal’s processing of the paperwork and employers could well find themselves being served with valid ET claims arising out of facts or circumstances that occurred almost a year earlier. 

Good news and bad news

In some respects, giving the parties more time to resolve potential claims through discussion and negotiation could be seen as a positive move. However, if valid claims could come through the letterbox almost a year after an employee left your employment, could this cause significant problems if documents, information and witness evidence relevant to the issues in dispute have been disposed of or are otherwise no longer available to you?

Do you need to review your document retention policies?

Given the risks of increased delays in receiving valid ET claims, it's important for businesses to make sure that relevant documents and information relating to potential disputes are retained for longer. In most cases, employers would be well advised to retain relevant documents and information for at least a year, possibly more like 15 months. Where appropriate, document retention policies should be updated accordingly.

Need a hand?

If you want to discuss the implications of this change in the law for your business, please get in touch.