• Where 100 or more employees are affected, the current 90 day minimum consultation period before the first redundancy can take effect will be reduced to 45 days. There will be no change to the rules where 20-99 employees are to be made redundant. Despite the decreased consultation period, the maximum protective award for failure to consult will remain at 90 days’ pay. This reflects the fact that the award is not linked to the length of consultation, but to the employer’s efforts to comply;

  • a new ACAS non-statutory code of practice will provide guidance on best practice in relation to the process and content of consultation, and will deal with non-standard redundancy situations;

  • the non-statutory code of practice will also include guidance on the meaning of ‘establishment’, including details of the factors which should be taken into account when deciding what constitutes an establishment for these purposes;

  • new legislation is to be introduced which will exclude from the consultation requirements employees whose fixed-term contracts are about to expire. A fixed term contract will need to have a clear termination point in order for it to benefit from this exemption. Consultation would also still need to take place where a fixed term contract is terminated early because of redundancy.

These changes are due to come into effect on 6 April 2013.

The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.