Flexible working to become a Day One right from April 2024

News | 20 December 2023

Written by: Emma Thompson
Partner

Written by: Emma Thompson, Partner

The Flexible Working (Amendment) Regulations 2023, which is due to come into force 6 April 2024, will remove the requirement that an employee must have 26 weeks’ service to be able to make a request for flexible working. The change will make the right to request flexible working a Day One right and will affect all requests made on or after the date that the regulations come into effect.

The government indicated their intention to make this change back in 2022, however, until now it has been omitted from the other changes to the statutory flexible working regime; notably the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 published earlier this year.

The Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023 will come into force on a date set by the Secretary of State in a separate statutory instrument, but it is likely that these changes will also come into force in April 2024.

For more information, contact a member of our Employment team on 020 8290 0440.