The time limit for employment tribunal claims is to be extended to six months. This is happening under the Employment Rights Act 2025.
The time limit for bringing an employment tribunal claim, including an employment claim under the Equality Act (EqA), is to be extended from (broadly) three months to six months.
The government has said this will take effect “no earlier than October 2026”: Plan to Make Work Pay and Employment Rights Act: timeline update (gov.uk), Feb 2026.
This EqA amendment is in the Employment Rights Act 2025 Sch 12 para 18. The government minister, Justin Madders, told the committee in December 2024 (Hansard, 3 Dec, 2:30pm):
New schedule 2 [now Schedule 12] amends time limits for making claims in employment tribunals from three months to six months. In recent years, as we know, demand has increased sharply. Increasing the time limit from three to six months will help to reduce pressure on the employment tribunal system, allowing parties to try to resolve their differences before resorting to formal litigation. …
Comment on the change: Employment Rights Bill – increasing time limits for tribunal claims (rangeofreasonableresponses.com), 28 Nov 2024.
The time limit is already six months for a non-employment EqA claim to a county court. Proposals to extend the employment tribunal limit are not new:
- In its “Plan to make work pay” (pdf, labour.org.uk), May 2024, Labour said it would increase the time limit for tribunal claims by employees to six months.
- The then Conservative government said in its Consultation on sexual harassment in the workplace: government response (gov.uk), July 2021 (in section 4.4) that it would “look closely” at extending the time limit for all EqA cases to six months.
- The Law Commission recommended in 2020 that the time limit for bringing all employment tribunal claims should be six months: Employment Law Hearing Structures (lawcom.gov.uk).
