UK flexible-working consultation closed 30 April – government response expected through summer 2026
The UK government’s Make Work Pay consultation on improving access to flexible working closed on 30 April 2026, with the government response expected through summer 2026. The consultation, opened in February under powers in the Employment Rights Act 2025, proposed a new “reasonableness test” requiring employers to demonstrate not just that they followed the statutory process when rejecting a flexible-working request, but that the refusal itself was reasonable. The Acas Code of Practice will be updated to guide employers on what “reasonable” means in practice, and Employment Tribunals will gain jurisdiction to assess substantive reasonableness rather than only procedural compliance.
The reasonableness test is targeted for 2027 implementation through secondary legislation. The eight statutory business reasons employers can rely on remain unchanged: cost burden, customer demand impact, inability to reorganise work, inability to recruit, quality impact, performance impact, insufficient work, and planned structural changes. What changes is that employers must show why refusal is reasonable on those grounds in the specific circumstances of the request.
Why this matters
For UK-based remote workers and those wanting to work remotely, the change strengthens an existing day-one right rather than creating a new substantive right. Employees can still request flexible working from day one of employment, make two requests per year, and expect a decision within two months. What changes is that a refused employee can challenge the substance of the decision at tribunal, not just the process – the tribunal can require reconsideration or award compensation of up to eight weeks’ pay (currently capped at £719 per week).
The Employment Rights Act 2025 has been in force since December 2025, with initial provisions taking effect in April 2026 and the flexible-working reasonableness test expected from 2027. The Act does not give an automatic right to work from home; it makes refusal harder to justify.
Context
The legislative trajectory is part of the broader Make Work Pay framework that includes Fair Work Agency enforcement (live since 7 April 2026, consolidating HMRC NMW, EAS, GLAA and Director of Labour Market Enforcement powers), strengthened pay-secrecy protections, and incoming changes to zero-hours contracts. Tribunal scrutiny of remote-working refusals has been intensifying since 2024, with case law increasingly testing blanket office-attendance mandates against the Equality Act 2010 where disability, pregnancy or caring responsibilities are involved.
The UK Government’s response to the House of Lords Home-Based Working Select Committee report (March 2026) signals long-term political support for remote and hybrid work as part of the broader flexible-working push. Acas is expected to publish updated Code of Practice guidance ahead of the 2027 implementation date.
What to watch
The government response to the April consultation will set out the detailed framework for the consultation process employers must follow before rejecting a flexible-working request, the operative date for the reasonableness test, and any further changes to compensation caps. Companies operating under the existing framework should review their flexible-working policies and refusal templates now to avoid retrofitting in 2027.