Government publishes response to flexible working consultation
The government has issued its formal reply to the “Make Work Pay” consultation on improving access to flexible working. It confirmed it will proceed with planned reforms to flexible working rules as part of the Employment Rights Act 2025.
The updates to legislation are designed to increase the chances that sensible, practical flexible working requests are approved, whilst ensuring the protection of employers’ right to decline applications where there are legitimate, evidence-based operational grounds.
For more information on dealing with flexible working requests, contact a member of Croner’s expert HR Advisory team. Call 0800 470 9999.
Flexible working benefits for employers and staff
The consultation response acknowledges the benefits of flexible working for both parties in the employment relationship. For workers, flexibility can improve wellbeing, accommodate caring duties, help disabled people stay in jobs, and allow more people to join, remain in, and progress within the labour market. For organisations and business owners, it can broaden candidate pools (helping solve recruitment difficulties), boost retention, and encourage workforce participation.
However, consultation feedback suggested that requests are not treated consistently and may sometimes be refused without proper dialogue, clear reasoning, or exploration of alternative options.
Proposals for flexible working reform
The key reform introduces a new statutory procedure that employers must follow when they are thinking about turning down a flexible working request. Employers will be required to work constructively with the employee, talk through the issues caused by the proposed arrangement, and consider whether those issues can be resolved.
In cases where the original request cannot be agreed, the conversation should look at alternative forms of flexibility or adjusted arrangements. The approach is designed to be light-touch and proportionate, yet more structured than the current framework.
Flexible working request refusals
If an employer ultimately ends up refusing a request, it must state why that decision is reasonable. The response should cite one or more applicable statutory business reasons and explain the supporting facts for relying on them in the specific situation. All eight grounds, such as extra cost, adverse impact on customer demand, an inability to reorganise work, recruitment challenges, effects on quality or performance, insufficient work during the proposed times, and planned structural change, will continue to apply.
These reforms will not introduce an automatic entitlement to homeworking or force employers to approve every application. The government recognises that flexibility is not workable for every job or setting. Even so, employers must show they have properly assessed each request, rather than relying on blanket policies, assumptions, or unsubstantiated refusals.
Implementing changes to flexible working
The government plans for the reforms to come into force in 2027 via secondary legislation. Acas is likely to update its Code of Practice and issue extra guidance on what “reasonableness” means, after further consultation.
In practice, employers will need to revisit policies, train managers, strengthen record-keeping, and make sure decision-makers consider each request on its own merits, consult appropriately, and provide clear, evidence-led reasons for any rejection.
Contact Croner to learn more about flexible working requests
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