New regulations governing trade union access to workplaces and workers took effect across Great Britain on 30 October 2026. They establish a statutory request process, with deadlines for employers and a route to an authority where agreement cannot be reached.
The rules apply in England, Wales and Scotland. Their geographical scope is Great Britain, rather than the whole of the UK. The new process concerns qualifying trade unions seeking access to workplaces and workers, with access able to take place physically, digitally or through a combination of both.
Employers must respond to an access request within 15 working days. That is the response deadline within the statutory process; it should not be confused with the separate periods prescribed for negotiations or for applications to the authority responsible for dealing with access disputes.
The regulations set out those stages separately, covering an employer’s response, negotiations and an application where agreement has not been reached. The regime therefore provides both a route for requesting access and a procedural framework for dealing with requests that do not result in an agreement.
For employers receiving a request, the distinction between working days and calendar days matters when considering the response period. The specified deadline is 15 working days. The regulations also prescribe the periods for subsequent negotiations and applications, rather than treating the initial response as the only stage.
The access covered by the regime is not confined to a physical visit. Digital access is also included, and an arrangement can combine digital and physical access. This breadth is part of the new statutory route, although access remains subject to the request and agreement process.
Where agreement is not reached, the authority can become involved. Its involvement is a further stage in the framework, not a description of every request. The process allows for negotiation as well as an application, with prescribed periods governing the steps towards possible intervention.
The regulations also set maximum penalties for successive failures in relation to an access agreement. Those ceilings are £75,000, £150,000 and £500,000. The amounts are maximum penalties, not fixed sums that automatically follow every failure, and they relate specifically to failures concerning an access agreement.
The escalating limits distinguish successive failures from one another. The first maximum is £75,000, followed by £150,000 and then £500,000 for successive failures. This enforcement element sits alongside the provisions governing requests, responses, negotiation and applications; it is a separate aspect of the access framework.
The regime includes an exclusion for employers with fewer than 21 workers in the circumstances specified by the regulations. That qualification is important: the exclusion is tied to the circumstances set out in the rules, rather than being an unrestricted statement about all employers below that size.
Similarly, the route is available to qualifying trade unions. The qualification forms part of the scope of the new arrangements. Describing the measure simply as access for all unions to all workplaces would leave out both that condition and the specified exclusion affecting smaller employers.
The commencement brings together a request mechanism, a deadline for an employer’s response, negotiation periods and a route for unresolved access matters. Physical and digital access fall within that structure, while the penalty provisions address successive failures in relation to an access agreement.
For workplaces within scope, the immediate procedural point is the requirement to respond within 15 working days. Beyond that first step, the new framework sets the timetable for negotiations and applications, with potential authority involvement if agreement is not reached and escalating maximum penalties attached to failures concerning an agreement.
