UK confirms flexible-working reforms for autumn 2027, with no right of appeal
The Department for Business and Trade published its response to the Make Work Pay consultation on improving access to flexible working on 15 September 2026, drawing on more than 1,000 responses. The reforms will be delivered through secondary legislation in autumn 2027. Employers will have to hold a meeting before refusing a flexible-working request, discuss whether the request is feasible, explore alternative arrangements, communicate the outcome in writing, and satisfy a new reasonableness test under the Employment Rights Act 2025. A draft code of practice goes before Parliament in summer 2027, and Acas will consult on an updated code.
Three proposals that were consulted on will not proceed: a requirement that the decision-maker attend the meeting, a prompt to consider Equality Act adjustments, and a fixed one-week notice period for the meeting. There will be no statutory right of appeal and no right to be accompanied at the meeting.
Why this matters
If you work in the UK and want to work remotely or on a hybrid pattern, the change is that a refusal will have to be reasonable, not merely properly processed. Employment Tribunals will be able to look at the substance of the decision rather than only whether the employer followed the steps. That is a real shift in what a rejection has to survive. Two things temper it. The date is autumn 2027, so nothing changes in your current job this year or next. And because there is no right of appeal and no right to be accompanied, the meeting where your request is decided is one you attend alone, with no internal stage after it.
Context
This settles the questions our 15 September item on the TUC announcement left open, where the commencement date and the legislative vehicle were both unconfirmed. It also closes a thread running back to the consultation opening in February and its closure on 30 April, when the response was expected through summer 2026.
The reasonableness test does not create a right to work from home. The eight statutory business reasons for refusing a request remain, and an employer that can ground a refusal in one of them and explain why it is reasonable will still be able to say no. Our guide to UK flexible working rights covers how the current regime works in the meantime.
What to watch
The draft code of practice goes before Parliament in summer 2027, and the Acas consultation on an updated code is the point at which “reasonable” starts to acquire a working definition. That consultation is the one to read when it opens, because the code is where the standard will actually be set.