Employment Update: News in Brief | Spring 2025

Neonatal care leave and pay

New statutory entitlements to neonatal care leave (NCL) and neonatal care pay (NCP) came into force on 6 April 2025. The government has published a suite of new guidance for employees and employers on NCL and NCP, including:

• Neonatal Care Pay and Leave – A guide for employees explaining entitlement, eligibility, how to claim, employment rights and how to cancel NCL or NCP.
• Statutory Neonatal Care Pay and Leave: employer guide – A guide for employers explaining entitlement, eligibility, employer record-keeping requirements, the financial assistance available to employers to pay NCP, and the information an employee must provide, their employment rights and how they can cancel NCL or NCP.
• How different employment types affect Statutory Neonatal Care Pay – A guide explaining the different NCP rules that apply to different types of employees and workers, including agency workers, directors and employees with more than one job with the same employer, or with more than one employer.
• Employee circumstances that affect payment of Statutory Neonatal Care Pay. 

Changes to permitted methods of document submission to the employment tribunal

New Presidential Practice Directions, which address the ways in which claims and responses may be presented to the employment tribunals, took effect on 21 May 2025.

The new Practice Directions require claims and responses to be presented either online, by post or in person. Email has been removed as a method of presentation, other than in exceptional circumstances where there is a fault with the online submission service, in which a claim or response presented by email must be accompanied by a screenshot of the error message generated by the online submission service confirming a system malfunction at the relevant time.

New minimum wage rates

The National Minimum Wage (Amendment) Regulations 2025 (SI 2025/401) came into force on 1 April 2025.

The new rates are as follows:

• National living wage (21 and over): £12.21 (6.7% increase).
• 18–20-year-old rate: £10.00 (16.3% increase).
• 16–17-year-old rate: £7.55 (18% increase).
• Apprentice rate: £7.55 (18% increase).
• Accommodation offset: £10.66 (6.7% increase).

Changes to injury to feeling awards

Following a recent Addendum to the Presidential Guidance on employment tribunal awards for injury to feelings, the so-called ‘Vento bands’ have been adjusted as follows to take account of the Retail Prices Index (RPI):

• A lower band of £1,200 to £12,100 (increasing from £1,200 to £11,700) for less serious cases.
• A middle band of £12,100 to £36,400 (increasing from £11,700 to £35,200) for cases which do not merit an award in the upper band.
• An upper band of £36,400 to £60,700 (increasing from £35,200 to £58,700) for the most serious cases.

Amounts in excess of £60,700 can be awarded in the most exceptional cases.

EHRC consultation on Services Code of Practice

The EHRC has launched a consultation on updates to its Code of Practice for services, public functions and associations (Services Code) following the judgment in For Women Scotland Ltd v Scottish Ministers on the meaning of “sex”, “woman” and “man” in the Equality Act 2010.

The consultation will close on 30 June 2025, and we understand that the EHRC aims to submit the final Services Code to the government by the end of July. No indication has been given of when the EHRC might update the Code of Practice on Employment.

Acas campaign to improve support for neurodivergent workers

Acas has launched a campaign to improve understanding and support for neurodivergent workers. The campaign is aimed at equipping employers with resources and advice to help foster a culture of belonging, where neurodivergent workers can thrive.

The focus of the campaign is on practical steps employers can take to make work environments more accessible, including:

• Inclusive hiring practices - Ensuring recruitment processes accommodate different cognitive styles.
• Reasonable adjustments – Providing tailored support, such as flexible work arrangements and assistive technology.
• Workplace awareness – Educating employers and staff about neurodivergence to reduce stigma and increase understanding.

Regulations increasing the amount of SMP which small employers can recover

The Statutory Maternity Pay (Compensation of Employers) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 (SI 2025/330) came into force on 6 April 2025, changing the provisions about recovery of statutory maternity pay (SMP) which apply to small employers. A ‘small employer’ for these purposes is an employer whose gross Class 1 NICs payments, including employer’s and employees’ shares, do not exceed £45,000 for the qualifying tax year.

Small employers, who are entitled to recover 100% of the SMP they have paid to employees, are also entitled to an additional payment, known as the ‘compensation rate’, to compensate for the employers’ National Insurance Contributions (NICs) which they must pay on SMP. The rate of payment was previously 3% of the SMP which a small employer has paid. The new regulations amend this percentage to 8.5% from 6 April 2025.