Employment Edit: 2 April 2026

Legal Updates

Statutory sick pay extended

Important statutory sick pay reforms are now confirmed to be coming into force on 6 April 2026. There are three key strands to these reforms:

• SSP will be payable from the first day of qualifying sickness absence, rather than the fourth day.
• Entitlement to SSP will be extended to those who earn below the Lower Earnings Limit.
• The new rate of SSP payable to eligible employees will be the lower of a flat statutory rate (initially £123.25 per week) or 80% of the individual’s normal weekly earnings.

The above changes will take effect from 6 April 2026. There are some fairly complex transitional arrangements that will apply to employees whose sickness absence starts under the existing rules and continues after the new rules take effect on 6 April 2026 – employers may want to look at this government guidance if they want to understand more about the SSP entitlement of employees in these circumstances.

We have been advising employers across a wide range of sectors on the implications of the ERA 2025, including these sick pay reforms. If we can help your organisation, please get in touch. 

Other April reforms

Prior to confirming the timescales for the SSP reforms above, the government published commencement regulations outlining the next steps in relation to several other ERA 2025 reforms.

As well as confirmation of the April 2026 commencement dates for important changes to collective redundancy consultation, trade union recognition and whistleblowing legislation, there was a surprise inclusion in the regulations. Neither the government’s implementation roadmap from last summer nor its timeline update from earlier this year gave any indication of when the new duty for employers to keep and retain annual leave records would come into force. It was therefore a bit of a surprise to see that this new duty is coming into effect on 6 April 2026. 

In the blog post below (which was quoted in a Personnel Today article), Katie Wooller shares her key takeaways from the commencement regulations. As well as spotting similarities between the regulations and the classic features of a tv drama (Bridgerton no less!), Katie considers how employers can prepare for the new duty to keep adequate holiday records.

Ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting

The government has confirmed that it remains committed to introducing mandatory ethnicity and disability pay gap reporting obligations for large employers.

In its response to last year’s consultation into the topic, the government has indicated that employers with 250 or more employees will be required to publish their ethnicity and disability pay gap data by reference to the same six measures as they currently use for gender pay gap reporting. Those six measures are pay quarters, the mean & median differences in average hourly pay, the mean and median differences in bonus pay, and the percentage of employees receiving bonus pay. They will also be required to report on the composition of their workforce by ethnicity and disability.

Further details of employers’ new obligations are expected to be included in a draft Equality (Race and Disability) Bill, as well as supporting regulations and government guidance. It is not clear at this stage when these new obligations would come into force.

Compensation and statutory limits

The usual annual increases to compensation and statutory payments have been announced, including increases to:

• the limit on a week’s pay for the purpose of calculating statutory redundancy payments and basic awards – £751 (up from £719); and
• the limit on a compensatory award for unfair dismissal – £123,543 (up from £118,223).

The new rates will apply to dismissals that take place on or after 6 April 2026. The new limit on the compensatory award will, however, only be in place for around nine months as the government intends to remove the cap entirely with effect from 1 January 2027. To read more about removal of the cap and what it means for employers, take a look at our ERA hub page below.

Injury to feelings awards

The maximum injury to feelings award that an employment tribunal can make in a successful discrimination claim will increase on 6 April 2026. For claims issued on or after 6 April 2026, the new bands (known as “Vento bands”) are:

• for less serious cases, a lower band of £1,300 to £12,600;
• for cases that do not merit an award in the upper band, a middle band of £12,600 to £37,700; and
• for the most serious cases, an upper band of £37,700 to £62,900.

In the most exceptional cases, an award that exceeds £62,900 could be made.