last updated 16.09.2025

Under the Employment Rights Bill, which is currently making its way through the Parliamentary process, large employers (i.e. those with 250 or more employees) will have a new obligation to publish an Equality Action Plan, in addition to their annual gender pay gap report. Employers will need to publish their plans on the gender pay gap reporting service website.

An Equality Action Plan should explain the steps the employer is taking to improve gender equality within their workplace, and how the employer is supporting employees during the menopause.

According to the Government’s implementation roadmap, the introduction of Equality Action Plans will take effect in 2027 (with introduction on a voluntary basis from April 2026). Although implementation is some way off, large employers could take steps now to prepare.

This is a good time to take stock of what your gender pay gap data looks like currently, including from recruitment and promotion perspectives. If you already have a gender pay gap action plan in place, review that carefully and consider whether there is scope for improvement. If you do not yet have an action plan, start thinking about what that might look like, including what your evidence base is for any actions you are taking to improve gender equality.

Consider too whether you could do more to support employees during the menopause. Do you have a menopause policy and/or menopause action plan and, if so, have you reviewed them recently? Would your managers and/or wider workforce benefit from menopause awareness training, or a refresher?

You can read more about the Government’s proposed changes in our new Employment Rights Bill knowledge base (see our spotlight on Equality Action Plans, which includes further steps you can take, here).

If you are a Make UK subscriber, your adviser can support you with any queries you may have in relation to these proposals, and you will have access to materials on EDI in the HR & Legal Resources section of our website, including gender pay gap reporting and the menopause at work. Make UK consultants can also support you with any projects you undertake in preparation for these changes. For example, we can provide training on unconscious bias (to support your recruitment), as well as menopause awareness training for both managers and your wider workforce. We can also help you with pulse surveys (for further details, see “What is a pulse survey?” in question 2 below), and we can provide support with understanding the diversity profile of your workforce (including pay gap audits and action plans).

If you are not a Make UK subscriber, you can contact us for further support on this topic or to access our resources. Please click here for information on how we can help your business. 

A “pulse survey” can be a useful HR tool for an employer to capture employee feedback on issues relating to their organisation, such as workplace culture and performance. Typically, a pulse survey involves asking a company’s workforce (or particular divisions or departments) a series of up to ten questions. Unlike a full survey (which typically includes 30 to 40 questions and is conducted annually), a pulse survey focuses on the issues that matter most right now. The results show what is working, what isn’t, and where change is needed. This helps HR and senior management to prioritise action, track progress and respond quickly to emerging challenges.

Topics in a pulse survey might include, for example, leadership effectiveness, EDI, culture, workplace demands, employee job satisfaction and/or staff wellbeing. The questions can be customised to focus on the areas that are of most interest to the employer and the results are generally anonymous. 

The results obtained from a pulse survey can help an employer to understand what employees are truly thinking. They also provide a useful benchmark to identify after a full survey what changes have been successful and where any ongoing gaps are. By gaining a broad understanding of the impact certain working practices are having on staff, senior management and HR can make strategic decisions about, for example, which workplace initiatives to prioritise moving forward. Repeating the pulse survey can also help with monitoring developments over time. 

If survey results identify certain trends, for example that employees are under consistent pressure to work long hours in a particular department, this can act as a prompt for the employer to review job design and working practices in the relevant area.

Make UK consultants can help you to conduct pulse surveys. We can either operate our standard online survey with simple results or work with you to design a bespoke survey questionnaire, with detailed results, advice, interpretation, guidance, and recommendations. If you are a Make UK subscriber, you can speak to your regular adviser to arrange this. If you are not a Make UK subscriber, please contact us for further details.

On 5 September 2025, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) announced that it has shared its updated Code of practice for services, public functions and associations (Code for Services) with Government for approval (see the EHRC’s press release here). 

This follows two consultation processes by the EHRC. The first consultation, which ran for three months in late 2024, sought views on updates to the whole Code for Services. Following the Supreme Court’s ruling in For Women Scotland Ltd v The Scottish Ministers in April 2025, the EHRC launched an additional consultation on proposed updates to sections of the Code for Services impacted by the ruling. 

Once the updated draft Code for Services has been approved by Government, it will need to be laid before Parliament for 40 days before it can be brought into force. 

Make UK responded to the consultation on the Code for Services. Separately, Make UK continues to press Government/the EHRC for an updated Employment Code of Practice (as that is the guidance which is of most relevance to employers), and in particular advice on the use of toilet and changing facilities in the workplace.

If this is an area in which your organisation would benefit from support, Make UK can provide further advice on how to adapt to the Supreme Court’s ruling and EHRC guidance. In addition, and more generally in the area of EDI, we can provide a suite of products including general awareness training for employees and specific training for your HR and leadership teams. 

There is no strict legal right for an employee to be accompanied to a redundancy consultation meeting, but it is good practice to allow this. 

In some circumstances, allowing an employee to be accompanied will help to establish the fairness of the dismissal and, depending on the situation, it may also be an appropriate reasonable adjustment to allow a disabled employee to be accompanied.

Our template letters (available to Make UK subscribers here) inviting an employee to a consultation meeting therefore include optional wording that you can use if you decide to allow the employee to bring a companion to the meeting.

If you are a Make UK subscriber, you can speak to your regular adviser for further guidance and/or access information about redundancies, including template letters, in the HR & Legal Resources section of our website. 

If you are not a Make UK subscriber, you can contact us for further support on this topic or to access our resources. Please click here for information on how we can help your business.

The Employment Rights Bill will require employers to pay statutory sick pay (SSP) from the first full day of sickness absence (i.e. the current three-day waiting period will be removed). The Bill will also remove the Lower Earnings Limit, and all eligible employees will be paid either the SSP flat rate (currently £118.75 per week) or 80% of their weekly earnings – whichever is lower. These changes will increase the number of employees who are eligible for SSP and bring forward the point at which payments must begin.

According to the Government’s implementation roadmap, these changes will come into force in April 2026. 

You can read more about proposed changes in our new Employment Rights Bill knowledge base (see our spotlight on SSP here).