The UK government publishes further consultation on union access to workplaces

On 8 April 2026, the Government published its response to the consultation Make Work Pay: Right of trade unions to access workplaces and launched a new consultation on an associated draft Code of Practice. 

As we reported in this article the Government published in October 2025 a consultation paper on the right of trade unions to gain access to UK workplaces to engage with workers in person or digitally for the purposes of representation, support, recruitment, organisation and collective bargaining. The Government intends to bring this right into force in October 2026 and the consultation paper sought views on how the right will work in practice .

The Government published its response to the consultation on 8 April 2026 alongside a new consultation on a draft statutory Code of Practice. The draft statutory Code of Practice sets out the measures the Government has decided to take forward and includes further proposals on the practical operation of the right. It covers how access requests should be made, how employers should respond, how constructive engagement should be facilitated and how the Central Arbitration Committee ('CAC') will exercise its functions in the event of a dispute. 

Some points that seem clear from the Government response include the following:

• The Government will proceed with the proposal to exempt employers with fewer than 21 workers from the trade union right of access framework.
• Email will be the preferred method for making a request, which should incorporate a 'baseline set of information requirements' including the type of access being requested, whether physical, digital or both, the nature of access (for example, in-person meetings, access to digital worker forums), the rationale for the type of access requested and the support required from the employer to facilitate access, the notice period the union will provide for the initial access visit and any subsequent visits and the frequency of access requested and rationale for this;
• Employer responses should also include a 'baseline set of information requirements' including whether the employer accepts or declines the request, in full or in part and if it rejects it, the reasons including confirmation of whether another union has already made a request for access;
• There will be template documents for making and responding to access requests and for notifying the CAC that an access agreement has been reached, revoked or varied;
• The initially proposed time periods are being extended and in particular the employer response period is being extended from five to 15 working days;
• The CAC should not grant access agreements without an expiry date, and they should not last longer than two years from the point they come into force;
• Model agreements will provide for weekly access (which employers and unions can agree to vary);
• Whilst the Government considers that employers should take reasonable steps to facilitate access, they should not have to make significant, structural, technological or operational changes in order to do so. Unions should normally use existing facilities and systems.

Comment

Employers may welcome clarification of some of the details of the proposed access arrangements, which are a new departure in UK employment law. As we have commented previously, however, the extent to which the proposals will increase union representation in UK workplaces remains to be seen. It seems unlikely that unions will focus limited resources on smaller employers, at least initially,

The draft Code of Practice will remain open for responses until 20 May 2026. If you have any views that you would like the Withers employment team to express on your behalf, please don't hesitate to get in touch. If you would prefer to respond directly you can do so using the link above.

This article is authored by Christina Morton, senior knowledge lawyer in the UK employment team.