Flexible Working Reforms: Government Plans Confirmed

The Government has now published its response to the consultation on improving access to flexible working, providing much greater detail on how the new flexible working framework will operate in practice.

Although the reforms stop short of creating a default right to work flexibly, they will require employers to adopt a more structured and evidence-based approach before rejecting a flexible working request.

What's changing?

Under the Employment Rights Act 2025 (ERA), employers may reject a flexible working request only where it is reasonable to do so on one of the eight statutory grounds for refusal. This is a significant change from the current regime, which requires only that a refusal is based on one of those grounds. In practice, unless a claim for breach of the current flexible working process is combined with a discrimination claim, the employer's justification for refusal is not very closely scrutinised. The new reasonableness requirement will change that.