UK Employment Contract: What the Law Requires (2026)

At a glance

• Day-one right: every worker is entitled to a written statement of the main particulars of employment no later than their first day, under section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 (as amended from 6 April 2020).
• Single document rule: since 6 April 2020, the core particulars — pay, hours, holiday, job title, place of work and any probationary period — must be given together in one document, not spread across paperwork issued weeks later.
• Probationary periods are now a named statutory particular. Section 1(4)(ga) requires the statement to record any probationary period, including its duration and conditions — a specific legal requirement, not just good practice.
• Statutory minimum notice runs from one week (after one month's service) up to twelve weeks at twelve or more years' service, under section 86 ERA 1996.
• Unfair dismissal qualifying period is still two years as at August 2026. The Employment Rights Act 2025 will cut this to six months, but only for dismissals with an effective date of termination on or after 1 January 2027 — it is not yet in force.
• Statutory Sick Pay changed on 6 April 2026: the three-day waiting period and the lower earnings limit have both been removed, so SSP is now payable from day one of eligible sickness absence.
• Contract terms must not discriminate against a worker because of a protected characteristic under the Equality Act 2010, and pay must meet the National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage rate in force at the time.

What is a written statement of employment particulars?

The legal minimum every employer must provide is a written statement of particulars — the specific list of facts about the job set out in section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996. It is not, by itself, the whole contract of employment. A contract can be partly written and partly agreed by conduct or verbally, but the written statement covers the terms most likely to matter if a dispute ever arises, and it is what a tribunal will look at first.

Most employers go further than the bare statutory minimum and issue a full written contract that folds the section 1 particulars into a single signed document, then adds the clauses the statute doesn't require: confidentiality, restrictive covenants, disciplinary and grievance procedures (or a reference to where they're set out), intellectual property, and what happens on termination. This guide covers both: what the law compels you to put in writing, and the practical choices you make on top of it.

This guide covers England and Wales. Scotland and Northern Ireland share the same UK-wide employment statutes in most respects, but always check for jurisdiction-specific case law or procedure if you employ staff there.

The legal framework: what section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 requires

Section 1 imposes the duty; the amendments made by the Employment Rights (Employment Particulars and Paid Annual Leave) (Amendment) Regulations 2018 and the Employment Rights (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations 2019, both in force from 6 April 2020, are what extended it to a day-one right for every worker (not just employees) and removed the old approach of issuing some particulars up to two months late.

What must be in the single principal statement

Under section 1(3) and 1(4), the statement must include:

• The employer's and worker's names, the start date, and the date continuous employment began.
• Pay: the rate or method of calculating it, and the pay interval (weekly, monthly, or other).
• Working hours, including which days are worked and whether hours or days may vary — and if so, how.
• Holiday entitlement, including public holidays and how accrued holiday pay is calculated on termination.
• Sickness and injury terms, including any sick pay provision, and terms for any other paid leave.
• Pensions and pension schemes, and any other benefits the employer provides.
• The notice period each side must give.
• Job title or a brief description of the work.
• Whether the role is temporary or fixed-term, and the expected end date if so.
• Any probationary period, including its conditions and duration — added from 6 April 2020 by section 1(4)(ga), with "probationary period" itself now statutorily defined in section 1(6) as a temporary period at the start of employment intended to let the employer assess suitability.
• Place of work, or an indication of that if the worker works at various locations.
• Any collective agreements directly affecting the terms.
• Training entitlement, including any training the employer requires the worker to complete.

Particulars that can be dealt with separately

A narrower band of detail doesn't have to be recited in full in the principal statement. Under section 3 and section 6, disciplinary rules and procedures, and grievance procedures, can be covered by referring the worker to a separate document that is reasonably accessible — a staff handbook on the intranet, for example — rather than reproducing it in the contract itself. If you take this route, make sure the referenced document genuinely is accessible to the worker and is kept current.

Itemised pay statements

Separately from the written statement, section 8 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 gives every worker the right to a written, itemised pay statement (a payslip) at or before each payment of wages, showing gross and net pay, any variable deductions, and — where pay varies by time worked — the number of hours paid for.

Notice periods: the statutory minimum under section 86

Section 86 sets a floor that contractual notice can improve on but never undercut:

| Employer's minimum notice to the employee | Employee's minimum notice to the employer | |---|---| | One week, once continuously employed for one month or more | One week, once continuously employed for one month or more | | One week per complete year of service, from 2 to 11 years | No increase — statutory minimum stays at one week regardless of length of service | | Twelve weeks, at 12 or more years' service | — |

A contract can lawfully require more notice than this on either side, and it is common — and lawful — for the employer's contractual notice to exceed the employee's, particularly for senior roles. It cannot require less than these statutory minimums; a shorter clause simply has no effect, and the statutory minimum applies instead.

Probationary periods: statutory requirement versus business choice

The law now requires you to record a probationary period if you have one, but it does not set its length or its process — that part is still your decision. Three to six months is typical, sometimes with an option to extend once. What the contract should be clear about is:

• The duration, and whether it can be extended and on what trigger.
• Any shortened notice period that applies specifically during probation (subject to the section 86 minimums above).
• What happens automatically at the end — confirmation, extension, or termination — and who decides.

Probation has no effect on day-one statutory rights: National Minimum Wage, paid holiday under the Working Time Regulations 1998, and protection from discrimination under the Equality Act 2010 all apply from the first day, probationary or not. It also has no effect on the unfair dismissal qualifying period discussed below — continuous service is counted from the start date of employment, not from the end of probation.

If you want to change the contract later

Once a contract is agreed, changing a term is not a unilateral decision. Variation generally needs the employee's consent, and — once agreed — section 4 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 requires you to give a written statement of the change at the earliest opportunity and, in any event, no later than one month after the change. Imposing a change without agreement risks a breach of contract claim, an unlawful deduction from wages claim if pay is affected, or constructive dismissal if the employee resigns in response to a fundamental breach. A narrow, clearly worded flexibility clause can allow minor adjustments, but tribunals read these restrictively — they won't stretch a small clause to cover a major change. For anything significant (pay, hours, location, role), run a proper consultation before you implement it, not after.

Restrictive covenants and post-termination restrictions

Restrictive covenants — non-compete, non-solicitation, non-dealing and confidentiality clauses that bite after employment ends — are a matter of common law, not statute. Courts will enforce them only to the extent necessary to protect a legitimate business interest: genuine trade secrets or confidential information, client or customer connections the employee had personal dealings with, or (in limited circumstances) a stable, trained workforce. A covenant is assessed for reasonableness as at the date the contract was made, looking at its duration, geographic scope and the activities it restricts. Draft too broadly and the risk isn't that a court quietly narrows the clause — it's that the whole restriction is struck out as an unlawful restraint of trade. Restrictions should be proportionate to the seniority and access of the specific role, and reviewed whenever someone is promoted or their duties change materially.

Employment status: employee, worker, or self-employed contractor

Before you draft anything, settle which category the person falls into — the terms "employee" and "worker" carry distinct legal meanings under section 230 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, and the difference drives which rights apply:

• Employees get the fullest protections, including the right to claim unfair dismissal once they meet the qualifying period (below), statutory redundancy pay, and the right to a written statement of particulars.
• Workers (a broader category that includes many casual and gig-economy staff) are entitled to National Minimum Wage, paid holiday, and the day-one written statement, but not unfair dismissal or redundancy rights.
• Self-employed contractors sit outside employment law protection largely, governed instead by whatever commercial contract you agree, though tax and status can still be challenged if the reality of the working relationship doesn't match the label.

Getting this wrong — treating someone as self-employed when the reality of the working relationship makes them an employee or worker — creates backdated liability for tax, National Insurance, holiday pay and other statutory entitlements.

Part-time and flexible-hours staff

A standard contract template can be adapted for part-time staff by pro-rating hours, salary and holiday, but the terms themselves must not disadvantage the part-timer. The Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000 entitle a part-time worker to treatment no less favourable than a comparable full-time worker doing broadly similar work for the same employer, on a pro-rata basis, unless the employer can objectively justify the difference. If your business runs genuinely variable or annualised hours rather than a fixed part-time pattern, a standard contract is often the wrong shape entirely — see our guide on annualised hours employment contracts for a structure built for that.

Directors who are also employees: service agreements

A director who also works in the business day-to-day — not just attending board meetings — is usually both a company office-holder and an employee, and the two roles are governed separately: company law and the articles govern the directorship, employment law governs the employment. A service agreement is the standard document for this combined position, and tends to go further than a staff contract, typically covering confidentiality obligations that survive termination, ownership of intellectual property created during employment, garden leave provisions, and how resignation or removal from the board interacts with the employment itself.

What's changing: the Employment Rights Act 2025

The Employment Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025 and is being brought into force in stages through commencement regulations, not in one go. Three changes matter directly to a standard employment contract:

• Statutory Sick Pay — already in force from 6 April 2026. The three-day waiting period and the lower earnings limit for SSP have both been removed, so eligible employees are paid from the first day of sickness absence, at the lower of the statutory weekly rate or 80% of average weekly earnings. Check your sickness clause reflects this now, not the old rules.
• Unfair dismissal qualifying period — not yet in force. From 1 January 2027, the qualifying period will fall from two years to six months, and the cap on compensatory awards will be removed, for dismissals with an effective date of termination on or after that date. Until then, the current two-year rule under section 108 ERA 1996 still applies in full.
• Restrictions on "fire and rehire" contract variation — further provisions of the Act restricting dismissal-and-re-engagement as a way of forcing through contract changes are being phased in through 2026 and into 2027 under separate commencement regulations. As at August 2026 the detailed rules were still subject to consultation and had not fully commenced — check the current position before relying on fire-and-rehire as a route to vary terms.

Because this Act is commencing piecemeal, don't assume a provision is live just because it received Royal Assent — check the specific commencement regulations, or the Acas guidance page on the Act, before relying on any date.

How to draft and issue a compliant employment contract

1. Decide the employment status. Confirm whether you're hiring an employee, a worker, or a genuinely self-employed contractor before drafting anything — see above.
2. Gather every particular the statement needs. Start date, job title, salary, hours (including which days and any variability), holiday, place of work, probationary period and its duration, and pension arrangements. Missing the probation particular is one of the most common section 1 failures.
3. Draft the contract clauses. Cover duties, remuneration, notice (never below the section 86 minimums), confidentiality, and termination. Add restrictive covenants only where there's a legitimate interest to protect, and keep them proportionate to the role.
4. Align with your policies. Reference your disciplinary and grievance procedures, and make sure they're accessible if you're relying on section 3/6 to avoid reciting them in full. Decide which staff-handbook policies are contractual and which aren't, since that affects how easily you can change them later — related policies on anti-bullying and harassment, anti-bribery and corruption, and adverse weather are commonly referenced this way rather than reproduced.
5. Issue and sign before day one. Give the full statement and contract to the new starter on or before their first day, and keep a signed copy on file. If terms change later, follow the section 4 process above rather than simply updating your own records.

Risks and common mistakes

• Missing the probation particular. Section 1(4)(ga) is easy to overlook if you're working from an older template written before April 2020 — check any inherited contract wording predates the amendment.
• Issuing the statement late, or in pieces, after day one. The single-document, day-one rule replaced the old two-month window; a contract that arrives in week three is non-compliant even if it eventually covers everything.
• Copying a non-compete clause from another business without tailoring it. A covenant that was reasonable for a senior sales director is very unlikely to be reasonable for a junior administrator, and courts won't rescue an over-broad clause by rewriting it.
• Sickness clauses that still describe the pre-April-2026 SSP rules. The three-day wait and the lower earnings limit are gone; a contract that still promises the old regime is simply wrong.
• Assuming self-employed status without testing it. Contractor agreements that don't reflect the real working relationship are routinely reclassified, with backdated liability for the employer.
• Relying on an unrepealed two-year unfair dismissal assumption after January 2027. Build a diary reminder now if you plan to rely on the current qualifying period close to that date — the change applies by effective date of termination, not by when the contract was signed.

This guide provides general information about employment contracts and the written statement of particulars in England and Wales. It is not legal advice and does not take account of your specific circumstances. Spring Incubator Ltd, trading as LegalDocuments.co.uk, is not a law firm and is not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. The law described was accurate as at August 2026 and is subject to change, particularly given the phased commencement of the Employment Rights Act 2025 — always check GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk for the current position, or speak to a regulated adviser for advice on your situation.

Last reviewed: August 2026 by a non-practising solicitor · Next review due: August 2027 or on legislative change.