Flexible working consultation closes — what employers should expect next

The government's consultation on a new process for handling flexible working requests, Make Work Pay: improving access to flexible working, closed on 30 April 2026. Although the window to respond has now passed, the direction of travel is clear and employers should start thinking about what is coming down the track.

The background

Since April 2024, employers have been required to consult an employee before refusing a flexible working request — but the legislation has been silent on how that consultation should actually happen. In practice that has led to a wide range of approaches, from genuine two-way conversations through to fairly tokenistic exchanges.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 gives the government powers to standardise the process. The aim is to make sure that, where a request cannot be agreed straight away, employers and employees are encouraged to genuinely explore workable alternatives, and ideally to try them out, before a request is rejected.

What the consultation was asking

The consultation, which ran from 5 February to 30 April 2026, sought views on three things:

A proposed new "light touch" process for employers to follow when consulting with employees about a flexible working request that cannot be immediately agreed. Practical input on what training, resources and support would help businesses navigate flexible working requests in practice. And broader views on other ways to improve access to flexible working.

The Department for Business and Trade was particularly interested in hearing from employers and employees with first-hand experience of making or handling requests, so the resulting guidance will hopefully reflect how flexible working actually plays out in real workplaces — including those in sectors where it is genuinely difficult to accommodate. A bus driver, after all, cannot drive a bus from their kitchen table.

The bigger change coming in 2027

The new consultation process is only part of the picture. The Employment Rights Act 2025 also introduces a "reasonableness test" which is expected to come into force in 2027. Under that test, employers will need to accept statutory flexible working requests where doing so is reasonable and feasible.

That is a meaningful shift. Today, an employer can reject a request on any of eight statutory business grounds, provided the decision is based on correct facts. Under the new test, the employer's reasoning will need to stand up to scrutiny on whether the rejection itself was reasonable — not just whether one of the statutory grounds technically applies.

The government has confirmed that statutory guidance will be published to help employers understand what the reasonableness test means in practice. The consultation responses will feed into that guidance.

What employers should be doing now

Even though the new rules are not yet in force, there are some sensible steps employers can take in the months ahead:

Review your existing flexible working policy, if you have one, and check it reflects the post-April 2024 position (no qualifying service requirement, two requests per year, decisions within two months including any appeal). If you do not have a written policy, now is a good time to put one in place.

Think about how decisions are documented. Under a reasonableness test, the contemporaneous notes of why a request was refused, and what alternatives were genuinely considered, will matter much more than they do today. A one-line refusal letter is unlikely to be enough.

Train line managers. In smaller businesses in particular, flexible working requests are often handled informally by whoever the employee reports to, and the quality of those conversations varies enormously. A short briefing on what the law actually requires can prevent a lot of avoidable problems.

Keep an eye out for the consultation response, expected later in 2026, which will give the first concrete indication of what the new process will look like before the reasonableness test takes effect in 2027.

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/make-work-pay-improving-access-to-flexible-working