Employment law

The qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims will be increased from one year to two years from April 2012. The Government will also introduce fees for individuals who want to bring cases to employment tribunals and will consult on their level. In addition, the Government will:

• Look for ways to provide a quicker and cheaper alternative to a tribunal hearing in simple cases – a ‘Rapid Resolution’ scheme;
• Complete a call for evidence on the effectiveness of the TUPE (Transfer of Undertakings – Protection of Employment) regulations and will consult on proposals for any changes in early 2012;
• Complete a call for evidence on the impact of reducing the collective redundancy process for redundancies of 100 or more staff from the current 90 days to 60, 45 or 30 days; and
• Begin a call for evidence on two further proposals for reform of UK employment law: (1) The introduction of compensated no-fault dismissal for businesses with fewer than ten employees; (2) A move to a simpler, quicker and clearer dismissal process, potentially including working with the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) to make changes to their Code or by introducing supplementary guidance for small businesses.
  

General deregulation

There will be a review of regulators to ensure that enforcement arrangements are appropriate, proportionate, fit for purpose and risk-based. The Government has also decided to accept the recommendations of Professor Löfstedt’s review of health and safety regulations and will look to go further.