A Flexible Response? What Employers Need to Know

What you need to know

• The Government has published its response to a consultation on flexible working (the Response).
• Employers will be required to follow a prescribed mandatory consultation process with employees when rejecting flexible working requests.
• Employers will also be required to establish that their justification for rejecting statutory flexible working requests is "reasonable" by reference to the eight existing statutory business reasons.
• Relevant changes are intended to take effect in autumn 2027.

The proposals

The Government has published its Response to a consultation which sought views on a range of issues, including access to flexible working.

The key reforms outlined in the Response include the introduction of a prescribed mandatory consultation process to be followed by employers when refusing a statutory flexible working request and a requirement for employers to establish that any refusal is "reasonable". Secondary legislation under the Employment Rights Act 2025 will set out the prescribed consultation process and bring the reasonableness test (first introduced by the Act) into force.

Mandatory consultation process

The Government will implement a prescribed mandatory consultation process which will require employers to hold a meeting with an employee before rejecting their statutory flexible working request.

The meetings will be used to consider the feasibility of the employee's flexible working request (addressing any challenges) and, where the request is deemed not feasible, to explore suitable alternative arrangements. All meetings will be conducted "with a view to reaching an agreement", according to the Government.

Such meetings will be required to:

• take place within the existing two-month decision-making period;
• be arranged with fair and reasonable notice to the employee;
• clearly communicate any challenges with the original request and consider potential solutions; and
• explore feasible alternatives (where the request cannot be accommodated).

The employee must also be informed about the purpose of the meeting in advance and, following the meeting, must receive written notification of both the outcome of the meeting and the final decision.

While employees will have no statutory right to be accompanied at the meeting (such as by a trade union representative or colleague), the Acas Code of Practice on requests for flexible working will continue to recommend that employers allow this as a matter of good practice. 

The Government will also bring into force a reasonableness requirement to be adhered to by employers when rejecting a statutory flexible working request.

Employers will still be required to cite one or more of the eight statutory business grounds when rejecting a flexible working request, but they will also be required to establish that their justification is reasonable. The statutory business grounds (which are unchanged) are:

1. The burden of additional costs;
2. A detrimental effect on ability to meet customer demand;
3. An inability to reorganise work among existing staff;
4. An inability to recruit additional staff;
5. A detrimental impact on quality;
6. A detrimental impact on performance;
7. Insufficiency of work during the periods the employee proposes to work; and
8. Planned structural changes.

Employees who believe the rejection was not reasonable can bring a claim in the employment tribunal, which could result in the employer being required to reconsider its decision or the employee being awarded compensation of up to eight weeks' pay (subject to the statutory cap on a week's pay, currently £751). Employees will not have a statutory right to appeal a flexible working decision, but providing a right of appeal is recommended within the Acas Code of Practice on requests for flexible working.