UK employees now have six months, not three, to file an employment tribunal claim. The change took effect on 1 October under the Employment Rights Act 2025 and applies across Great Britain, with one carve-out: breach of contract claims in Scotland keep the shorter limit until 9 November 2026.

For HR teams, the doubled window touches every stage of the dispute process — internal investigations, grievance and disciplinary timelines, settlement negotiations and litigation risk forecasting. Cases that would previously have been time-barred after 90 days can now surface up to six months after the triggering event, extending the period during which an employer faces contingent liability.

The government's stated intent is twofold. First, the longer limit gives employers and employees more room to resolve disputes internally or through conciliation, potentially reducing the volume of claims that enter the tribunal system. Second, it aims to improve access to justice — giving employees more time to build a case and raise funds before filing.

What Acas guidance says

Acas has published updated guidance on the new time limits. Employees have six months minus one day to bring claims for statutory redundancy pay, equal pay and claims against a trade union.

The start date for the clock depends on the claim type:

• Unfair dismissal: time runs from the "effective date of termination" — either the last day of the notice period or the day the employee is dismissed without notice.
• Pay and wages claims: time runs from the date the employee was not paid correctly.
• Discrimination claims: time runs from the date of the last act of discrimination included in the claim.

Acas also offers help for calculating limits in complex situations, such as disputes spanning more than one type of claim or involving multiple, continuous issues. If the deadline has passed, employees can still file — but a judge decides whether to accept the claim.

Practical implications for employers

The extension reshapes several people-process decisions. Settlement discussions that once concluded under the pressure of a three-month deadline may now stretch across half a year, which affects how HR sequences investigations, responds to grievances and structures settlement agreements. Record-retention practices matter more too: evidence relevant to a dismissal decision may need to be defensible six months after the event rather than three.

The change also interacts with Acas early conciliation, which pauses the limitation clock — one reason HR and legal teams should recalculate deadline trackers rather than simply doubling existing figures.

Part of a wider reform programme

The deadline increase sits within the government's Plan to Make Work Pay and the broader implementation of the Employment Rights Act 2025. The government said it continues "extensive engagement and consultation" on implementation to ensure the changes "work for both workers, and businesses of all sizes". A full list of consultation documents is available on the government's website.

Employers can expect further phased changes as consultations conclude, making autumn a sensible point to audit internal dispute-resolution timelines against the new statutory limits.