TUPE for Employers: Transfers In, Transfers Out, and the Payroll in Between
TUPE protects employees when a business or a service contract changes hands. Their contracts, terms and continuous service move to the new employer automatically.
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Bolton, Manchester, North WestWhat is TUPE and when does it apply?
TUPE is the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006, as amended. Regulation 3 sets out two situations where it applies.
1. A business transfer
A transfer of an undertaking, business, or part of a business situated in the UK immediately before the transfer, to another person, where there is a transfer of an economic entity which retains its identity. Regulation 3(2) defines an economic entity as "an organised grouping of resources which has the objective of pursuing an economic activity, whether or not that activity is central or ancillary".
In plain terms: you have sold or bought a business, or a self-contained part of one, and the same activity continues afterwards.
Acas describes it as the situation where an organisation, or part of it, is transferred from one employer to another, and lists the transferring assets as including employees, equipment, premises, work in progress, goodwill and intellectual property.
2. A service provision change
This is the one that catches most small employers out, because there is no sale and no money changing hands between the two employers. Regulation 3(1)(b) covers three scenarios:
- ●Outsourcing: activities cease to be carried out by a client on its own behalf and are carried out instead by a contractor on the client's behalf.
- ●Retendering: activities cease to be carried out by a contractor and are carried out instead by a subsequent contractor on the same client's behalf.
- ●Insourcing: activities cease to be carried out by a contractor or subsequent contractor and are carried out instead by the client on its own behalf.
Regulation 3(3) adds the conditions that must be met:
- ●Immediately before the change, there is an organised grouping of employees situated in Great Britain which has as its principal purpose the carrying out of the activities concerned on behalf of the client;
- ●The client intends that the activities will, after the change, be carried out other than in connection with a single specific event or task of short-term duration; and
- ●The activities do not consist wholly or mainly of the supply of goods for the client's use.
Regulation 3(2A), inserted on 31 January 2014, added an important qualifier: the activities carried out by the new provider must be "fundamentally the same" as those carried out by the person who stopped doing them. A genuinely restructured service specification can take a retender outside TUPE. A cosmetic rewrite of the contract will not.
Acas gives common examples of service provision changes: contracts for catering, security, office cleaning, waste collection and machinery maintenance.
When TUPE does not apply
Acas is direct about this: TUPE is not likely to apply if it is a transfer of shares or equipment only.
- ●Share sales. If someone buys the shares in your company, the employer does not change. The company is still the employer; it just has new owners. No TUPE.
- ●Supply of goods only. Switching from one supplier of parts to another is not a service provision change.
- ●Single events or short-term tasks. A one-off conference or exhibition does not meet the regulation 3(3) condition.
- ●Administrative reorganisation of public administrative authorities, or transfer of administrative functions between them, is excluded by regulation 3(5).
Regulation 3(6) is worth knowing: a relevant transfer may be effected by a series of two or more transactions, and may take place whether or not any property is transferred. Splitting a deal into stages does not avoid TUPE.
Who actually transfers?
Only employees assigned to the organised grouping of resources or employees that is subject to the transfer, per regulation 4(1). The test is assignment, not who happens to spend some time on the work.
Things to get right when drawing up the transferring list:
- ●Assignment is a question of fact, judged immediately before the transfer. Consider the proportion of time spent, what the contract says, how costs are allocated and how the person is managed.
- ●Regulation 4(3) extends the list to a person who would have been employed and assigned immediately before the transfer if they had not been dismissed in the circumstances described in regulation 7(1). You cannot remove someone from the list by dismissing them because of the transfer.
- ●A series of transactions is covered: someone employed and assigned immediately before any of those transactions counts.
- ●People on long-term sick leave, maternity leave or secondment normally still transfer if they are assigned to the grouping.
- ●Employees who object. Under regulation 4(7), the contract does not transfer for an employee who informs either employer that they object to becoming employed by the transferee. Regulation 4(8) then says the transfer terminates their contract with the transferor, but they are not treated as dismissed, so there is no redundancy payment and no unfair dismissal claim, unless regulation 4(9) applies.
- ●Regulation 4(9) is the exception that matters: where the transfer involves or would involve a substantial change in working conditions to the material detriment of a transferring employee, the employee may treat the contract as terminated and is treated as having been dismissed.
What transfers with them
Regulation 4(2) is sweeping. On completion of a relevant transfer:
"all the transferor's rights, powers, duties and liabilities under or in connection with any such contract shall be transferred by virtue of this regulation to the transferee; and any act or omission before the transfer is completed, of or in relation to the transferor in respect of that contract or a person assigned to that organised grouping of resources or employees, shall be deemed to have been an act or omission of or in relation to the transferee."
Read that second half again if you are the incoming employer. An act or omission by the outgoing employer is deemed to be yours. An unresolved grievance, an unequal pay problem, an unpaid bonus, a discrimination claim that has not been issued yet: you inherit them. Regulation 4(6) carves out only criminal liability.
That is why due diligence, warranties and indemnities matter, and why the employee liability information duty below exists.
What is employee liability information and when is it due?
This is the single most commonly missed duty in a small-business TUPE transfer.
Regulation 11 requires the transferor (outgoing employer) to notify the transferee (incoming employer) of employee liability information for each assigned person, in writing or by making it available in a readily accessible form.
What must be provided
Regulation 11(2) lists it:
- ●(a) the identity and age of the employee
- ●(b) the particulars of employment the employer must give under section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, that is, the written statement of employment particulars
- ●(c) information of any disciplinary procedure taken against an employee, or grievance procedure taken by an employee, within the previous two years, where the Acas Code applies
- ●(d) information of any court or tribunal case, claim or action brought by an employee against the transferor within the previous two years, or that the transferor has reasonable grounds to believe an employee may bring against the transferee arising out of their employment with the transferor
- ●(e) information of any collective agreement which will have effect after the transfer in relation to that employee
Acas summarises the same list as name, age, written statement of employment particulars, disciplinary and grievance records or ongoing cases from the last 2 years, collective agreements, and claims made or anticipated in the last 2 years.
The deadline
Not less than 28 days before the relevant transfer, per regulation 11(6), or, if special circumstances make this not reasonably practicable, as soon as reasonably practicable afterwards.
That 28 days is a change from the original TUPE 2006 position of 14 days, substituted on 31 January 2014 by the Collective Redundancies and Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (Amendment) Regulations 2014. If a template or checklist in your files still says 14 days, it is out of date.
Two further mechanics:
- ●Regulation 11(3): the information must be correct as at a specified date not more than fourteen days before the date it is notified. So you cannot send a snapshot from three months ago.
- ●Regulation 11(5): after the initial notification, the transferor must notify the transferee in writing of any change.
- ●Regulation 11(7): the notification may be given in more than one instalment, and indirectly through a third party.
What happens if it is not provided
Regulation 12 lets the transferee complain to an employment tribunal. Where the complaint is well-founded the tribunal makes a declaration and may award compensation, which is "such as the tribunal considers just and equitable" having particular regard to the transferee's loss and to any contractual arrangement between the parties. Critically, regulation 12(5) sets a floor:
"the amount of compensation awarded under paragraph (3) shall be not less than £500 per employee in respect of whom the transferor has failed to comply with a provision of regulation 11, unless the tribunal considers it just and equitable, in all the circumstances, to award a lesser sum."
Acas states the same figure: at least £500 for each employee the old employer gave incorrect or no information for.
The time limit for that complaint is currently three months beginning with the date of the transfer under regulation 12(2). Note that regulation 12(2) carries a prospective amendment by Schedule 12 of the Employment Rights Act 2025, in line with the general extension of tribunal time limits described further down this page.
What are the duties to inform and consult, and when do they bite?
Regulation 13 imposes the duty on both employers, in relation to their own affected employees.
"Affected employees" is defined broadly in regulation 13(1) as any employees of either employer, whether or not assigned to the grouping being transferred, who may be affected by the transfer or by measures taken in connection with it. The staff staying behind who will pick up extra work are affected employees. So are the incoming employer's existing staff whose shifts will change.
What must be told, and when
Regulation 13(2) requires the employer, "long enough before a relevant transfer to enable the employer of any affected employees to consult the appropriate representatives", to inform them of:
- ●(a) the fact that the transfer is to take place, the date or proposed date, and the reasons for it
- ●(b) the legal, economic and social implications of the transfer for any affected employees
- ●(c) the measures the employer envisages taking in relation to affected employees in connection with the transfer, or that it envisages no measures
- ●(d) if the employer is the transferor, the measures the employer envisages the transferee will take in relation to employees who will become the transferee's employees, or that it envisages none
Regulation 13(2A), inserted in 2011, adds suitable information relating to the use of agency workers: the number of agency workers working temporarily under the employer's supervision and direction, the parts of the undertaking they work in, and the type of work they carry out.
Regulation 13(4) requires the transferee to give the transferor the information it needs, at a time that enables the transferor to comply with 13(2)(d). If you are the incoming employer and you go quiet on the outgoing employer about your plans, you are causing their breach and, under regulation 15(5) and 15(8)(b), a tribunal can order you to pay the compensation.
How long is "long enough"?
There is no fixed number in the regulations. Acas confirms that there is no fixed length of time and the employer must allow enough time to inform and fully consult before the transfer, with the appropriate period depending on the size of the organisation, the number of affected employees, the complexity of the changes and whether employee representatives need to be elected.
In practice, for a small transfer with existing representatives, four weeks is usually workable. Where representatives have to be elected first, allow six to eight weeks, because the election itself has to happen "long enough before" the information is due under regulation 13(10).
Who you inform and consult
Regulation 13(3): if an independent trade union is recognised for those employees, the union's representatives. Otherwise, the employer chooses between existing employee representatives with authority to receive information and be consulted about the transfer, or representatives elected for this purpose in an election meeting the requirements of regulation 14.
The small employer exception
Regulation 13A allows an employer to inform and consult employees directly where there are no appropriate representatives, the employer has not invited employees to elect any, and at least one of the following applies:
- ●the employer employs fewer than 50 employees; or
- ●there are fewer than 10 transferring employees.
GOV.UK confirms the same thresholds and states they apply to transfers completing on or after 1 July 2024. The transitional provision is at regulation 8 of the Employment Rights (Amendment, Revocation and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2023, which says the amendments "apply in relation to a TUPE transfer which takes place on or after 1st July 2024".
For most Bolton and Greater Manchester SMEs, this is the route you will use. It removes the election process, not the duty.
Consultation on measures
Regulation 13(6): an employer who envisages taking measures must consult the appropriate representatives "with a view to seeking their agreement to the intended measures". Regulation 13(7) requires the employer to consider representations, reply to them, and state reasons where representations are rejected.
Note the asymmetry. Informing is always required. Consulting is required where there are measures. In practice, measures almost always exist, even in a "nothing will change" transfer: a new payroll date, a new reporting line, a different sick pay notification process. Say so and consult on it.
What counts as a "measure"?
Acas defines measures as any changes which will affect employees. The regulations do not list them. From transfers we have run, the ones most often forgotten:
- ●change of payroll provider, pay date, or pay frequency
- ●change to the method of paying expenses or mileage
- ●change of pension provider or pension scheme
- ●change of place of work, even a short move
- ●change of line manager or reporting structure
- ●change to shift patterns or rotas
- ●moving from paper payslips to an online portal
- ●changing the absence reporting number and process
- ●changing the holiday year, or the holiday booking system
- ●introducing or removing a uniform requirement
- ●a proposed redundancy programme after the transfer
If you are the incoming employer, write this list out for your own transfer and give it to the outgoing employer early. It is the single most useful thing you can do for them and for your new staff.
What are the penalties for failing to inform and consult?
Regulation 15 allows a complaint to a tribunal by affected employees, employee representatives or the trade union. Where the complaint is well-founded, the tribunal makes a declaration and may order payment of "appropriate compensation".
Regulation 16(3) defines appropriate compensation as:
"such sum not exceeding thirteen weeks' pay for the employee in question as the tribunal considers just and equitable having regard to the seriousness of the failure of the employer to comply with his duty."
Acas states the same: up to 13 weeks' uncapped gross pay for each affected employee.
Uncapped is the word to notice. Unlike a week's pay for redundancy purposes, this is not subject to the statutory cap. Thirteen weeks' gross pay for twenty affected employees is a serious number.
Two further points:
- ●Regulation 15(9): the transferee is jointly and severally liable with the transferor for compensation ordered against the transferor. Buying the business does not leave the consultation failure behind.
- ●Regulation 15(2): where the employer argues "special circumstances" made compliance not reasonably practicable, the burden of proof is on the employer. Regulation 15(6) makes clear that a failure by a parent company to give the employer information is not a special circumstance.
When is a dismissal around a transfer automatically unfair?
Regulation 7, in the form substituted on 31 January 2014, is short and decisive.
Regulation 7(1): where, either before or after a relevant transfer, any employee of the transferor or transferee is dismissed, that employee is treated as unfairly dismissed if the sole or principal reason for the dismissal is the transfer.
Regulation 7(4) makes this apply irrespective of whether the employee in question is assigned to the grouping being transferred. So the outgoing employer's back-office staff are protected too.
The ETO exception
Regulation 7(2): the automatic unfairness does not apply where the sole or principal reason for the dismissal is an economic, technical or organisational reason entailing changes in the workforce of either employer, before or after the transfer.
Where an ETO reason applies, regulation 7(3) says the dismissal is regarded as being for redundancy where section 98(2)(c) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 applies, or otherwise for some other substantial reason. It is not automatically fair. The ordinary fairness test in section 98(4) still applies, so you still need a fair procedure, a fair selection, consultation and consideration of alternatives.
Regulation 7(3A) adds that "changes in the workforce" includes a change to the place where employees are employed. That 2014 amendment matters a great deal for transfers involving a site consolidation.
Acas explains ETO reasons as: economic reasons, for example essential cost-saving requirements; technical reasons, for example using new processes or equipment; organisational reasons, for example making changes to the structure of an organisation.
What you cannot do
Acas is explicit on the two manoeuvres employers most often try:
- ●An employer cannot make redundancies before a TUPE transfer if the reasons relate to the transfer.
- ●The new employer cannot ask the old employer to make redundancies before the transfer, as this would be unfair dismissal.
Doing the second of these does not shift the liability. Regulation 4(3) puts the dismissed employee back on the transferring list, and regulation 4(2)(b) deems the outgoing employer's act to be the incoming employer's.
Can I change terms after a transfer?
Mostly, no. This is the part employers find hardest, because the commercial instinct after an acquisition is to harmonise everything.
Regulation 4(4) says any purported variation of a transferring contract is void if the sole or principal reason for the variation is the transfer. Note "void", not "voidable", and note that it applies even if the employee agrees.
The three exceptions
Regulation 4(5)(a): the variation is permitted where the sole or principal reason is an economic, technical or organisational reason entailing changes in the workforce, provided the employer and employee agree the variation.
Regulation 4(5)(b): the variation is permitted where the terms of the contract permit the employer to make such a variation. A genuine, clearly drafted flexibility clause inherited from the old contract can still be used.
Regulation 4(5B): where the term was incorporated from a collective agreement, regulation 4(4) does not apply provided:
- ●the variation takes effect on a date more than one year after the date of the transfer; and
- ●following the variation, the rights and obligations in the employee's contract, considered together, are no less favourable to the employee than those which applied immediately before the variation.
Acas puts the same rule in plainer words: one year after the transfer, an employer can renegotiate terms and conditions in collective agreements, but only if overall it does not make an employee's contract worse.
Regulation 4(5A) confirms that, for regulation 4(5), "changes in the workforce" includes a change to the place where employees are employed.
Harmonisation
Acas gives the example of a college that tried to standardise terms across transferred employees and concludes: the college does not have a valid ETO reason because the contract changes do not involve a change in the workforce.
Harmonisation for its own sake is not an ETO reason. There is no time limit after which the transfer stops being the reason; what changes over time is how easy it is to show that something else is the reason.
Acas also confirms an employer can change a contract to improve terms. And do not forget regulation 4(9): a substantial change in working conditions to an employee's material detriment lets them resign and claim they were dismissed.
Practical routes that do work
- 1.Wait and change for a genuine, documented business reason unconnected to the transfer. Record the reason at the time, not afterwards.
- 2.Change only for new starters, and accept a two-tier workforce for a period.
- 3.Use the regulation 4(5B) collective agreement route after 12 months, ensuring the overall package is no less favourable.
- 4.Buy the change, with a properly valued lump sum, and take advice first. Consideration does not by itself cure a regulation 4(4) void variation, so this needs care.
- 5.Restructure genuinely. If the organisational design really is changing and roles really are changing, you have an ETO reason and a redundancy or reorganisation process, run properly.
What happens to pensions?
Pensions are the main exception to "everything transfers", and they are handled in two layers.
Occupational pension schemes
Regulation 10 disapplies regulations 4 and 5 in relation to so much of a contract of employment or collective agreement as relates to an occupational pension scheme within the meaning of the Pension Schemes Act 1993, and to rights, powers, duties or liabilities relating to such a scheme.
Regulation 10(2) narrows that exclusion: provisions of an occupational pension scheme which do not relate to benefits for old age, invalidity or survivors are not treated as part of the scheme. So early retirement benefits and redundancy-related pension enhancements that are not old age, invalidity or survivor benefits can transfer. This is a well-litigated area and is the point at which to take advice.
Regulation 10(3) prevents a transferring employee bringing a breach of contract or constructive unfair dismissal claim against the transferor arising out of a loss or reduction of occupational pension rights in consequence of the transfer.
The minimum replacement obligation
Sections 257 and 258 of the Pensions Act 2004 impose a floor. Under section 258, where section 257 applies, it is a condition of the employee's contract with the transferee that the transferee either secures that the employee is, or is eligible to be, an active member of an occupational pension scheme in relation to which the transferee is the employer (making relevant contributions if it is a money purchase scheme), or makes relevant contributions to a stakeholder pension scheme of which the employee is a member.
"Relevant contributions" are prescribed by regulation 2 of the Transfer of Employment (Pension Protection) Regulations 2005: contributions matching the employee's own contributions where those are less than 6% of remuneration, and of not less than 6% of remuneration where the employee contributes 6% or more. For a non-money-purchase scheme, the alternative standard is benefits worth at least 6% of pensionable pay for each year of employment, with member contributions not exceeding 6% of pensionable pay.
Section 258(6) allows the employee and transferee to agree otherwise after the employee becomes employed by the transferee.
Personal and stakeholder pensions
Contractual obligations to contribute to a personal or stakeholder pension are not occupational pension scheme rights, so they transfer under regulation 4 in the ordinary way. If the outgoing employer contractually pays 8% into a personal pension, the incoming employer inherits that obligation.
Separately, automatic enrolment duties apply to the transferee as employer in the normal way from the transfer date.
Pensions checklist for the incoming employer:
- 1.Identify the scheme type for every transferring employee: occupational, personal, stakeholder, or auto-enrolment default.
- 2.Get the contribution rates and whether they are contractual.
- 3.Decide the receiving arrangement and check it meets the section 258 floor.
- 4.Tell employees what happens to their pension as part of the regulation 13(2)(b) information, before the transfer, not after.
- 5.Make sure contributions do not lapse in the first month. This is the most common practical failure.
How does payroll actually transfer, and what happens to continuity of service?
This is the section people search for and rarely find answered properly.
Continuity of service
Continuous employment is preserved. Because regulation 4(1) says the contract "shall have effect after the transfer as if originally made between the person so employed and the transferee", start dates carry over for every service-related right: notice, statutory redundancy pay, unfair dismissal qualification, enhanced sick pay, holiday entitlement tiers, maternity rights and any service-based benefits in the contract.
Acas confirms the practical consequence for redundancy pay: an employee's length of service is protected in a TUPE transfer, so their redundancy pay is based on how long they worked for both the old and new employer, and if the new employer makes redundancies after a TUPE transfer, they are responsible for redundancy pay.
Record the original start date on your payroll system, not the transfer date. Getting this wrong is the source of an enormous number of underpaid redundancy calculations.
The payroll transfer, step by step
- 1.Agree a cut-off. The transferor pays up to and including the day before the transfer date; the transferee pays from the transfer date. Put this in the transfer agreement.
- 2.Get the payroll data at least 28 days out, alongside the employee liability information. You need: full name, address, date of birth, National Insurance number, original continuous service start date, tax code and P45 or starter information, gross pay and pay frequency, pay date, bank details, pension scheme and contribution rates, salary sacrifice arrangements, student loan plan type, attachment of earnings orders, year-to-date pay and tax figures, accrued and taken holiday, and any outstanding loans, season ticket advances or overpayments.
- 3.Handle PAYE correctly. HMRC operates a succession process for PAYE schemes on business transfers. Speak to HMRC or your payroll bureau early and decide whether the scheme is succeeded or employees are treated as new starters with continuity preserved for employment law purposes. Getting this wrong produces incorrect year-to-date figures and a wave of tax queries in month one.
- 4.Reconcile holiday. Agree who pays for accrued untaken holiday. Commercially this is usually settled by an adjustment to the price or an indemnity. Legally, the liability transfers under regulation 4(2).
- 5.Parallel run. Run the first payroll in parallel against the transferor's last payroll for a sample of employees before you commit.
- 6.Pay on the old pay date for the first cycle if you possibly can. Moving someone's pay date is a measure requiring consultation, and it is the change most likely to cause genuine hardship and real anger.
- 7.Confirm bank details directly with employees, in writing, to guard against payroll diversion fraud, which frequently targets businesses in transition.
- 8.Send a clear first payslip explainer. One side of A4: what has changed, what has not, who to contact.
Deductions, benefits and the things that fall through the cracks
- ●Salary sacrifice arrangements are contractual variations and transfer, but the scheme itself may not exist at the transferee. Plan a replacement or a compensating adjustment, and consult on it as a measure.
- ●Private medical insurance, life assurance and income protection transfer as contractual obligations. Check the new policy will accept transferring members, including anyone mid-claim.
- ●Share schemes cannot usually transfer in identical form. The obligation to provide something of equivalent value may.
- ●Company cars and car allowances transfer. Check lease novations separately.
- ●Long service awards and enhanced redundancy terms transfer, and are calculated on original service.
What must the outgoing employer do?
If staff are leaving you, your job is to hand over accurately, consult properly and keep the service running. Acas advises both employers to keep employees informed, have a transfer plan and share it with all employees, and identify a single person to manage the transfer as a clear point of contact.
Your checklist:
- 1.Establish whether TUPE applies. Get this decided early and in writing; it drives everything else.
- 2.Identify who is assigned to the transferring grouping, and who is not. Document the reasoning.
- 3.Identify all affected employees, including staff staying behind whose work will change.
- 4.Arrange representatives, or confirm you can consult directly under regulation 13A.
- 5.Provide employee liability information at least 28 days before the transfer, accurate as at a date no more than 14 days before you send it, and notify changes in writing.
- 6.Ask the transferee for its measures information in time to comply with regulation 13(2)(d), in writing, with a deadline.
- 7.Inform and consult long enough before, on the facts, the legal, economic and social implications, and the measures.
- 8.Do not dismiss anyone because of the transfer, and do not accept a request from the transferee to do so.
- 9.Keep motivation and service standards up. Acas notes the old employer should keep affected employees motivated about the transfer and make sure work gets done to the same standard.
- 10.Run the final payroll cleanly, settle expenses, and provide P45s or succession data as agreed.
- 11.Negotiate warranties and indemnities covering pre-transfer liabilities each way.
What must the incoming employer do?
If staff are coming to you, your job is to find out what you are inheriting, decide your measures early, and make the first week feel organised.
Acas advises the new employer to assess the benefits or risks and the costs, for example staff employment or redundancy costs, consider whether there is enough work for the transferring employees, consider the impact on existing staff, request due diligence information and employment checks, and obtain warranties and indemnities.
Your checklist:
- 1.Run employment due diligence as seriously as financial due diligence. You are inheriting acts and omissions under regulation 4(2)(b).
- 2.Chase the employee liability information. Do not wait for day 28. Ask at the start and escalate if it is late. The regulation 12 remedy is real but it is a poor substitute for knowing.
- 3.Decide your measures early and tell the transferor, so they can comply with regulation 13(2)(d). If you do not, a tribunal can order you to pay compensation under regulation 15(8)(b).
- 4.Inform and consult your own affected employees. Existing staff whose roles change are affected employees with their own regulation 13 rights.
- 5.Do not plan changes to terms unless you have a genuine, documented ETO reason or a contractual flexibility clause.
- 6.Plan the pension receiving arrangement against the section 258 and 2005 Regulations floor.
- 7.Set up payroll and parallel run.
- 8.Right to work checks. Carry out checks on transferring employees. There is a grace period for TUPE transfers under Home Office guidance; confirm the current period before you rely on it.
- 9.Book a welcome session in week one. Who to call, how to book holiday, how to report sickness, when they get paid, what has not changed.
- 10.If you genuinely need redundancies afterwards, run a proper process with a genuine ETO reason, real consultation and objective selection, and expect it to be scrutinised.
What does a realistic TUPE timeline look like?
Times are from the transfer date, working backwards. This assumes a small to mid-sized transfer using the regulation 13A direct consultation route.
| When | What happens |
|---|---|
| Week minus 10 to minus 12 | Decide whether TUPE applies. Appoint a single transfer lead on each side. Begin employment due diligence. Draft the transfer plan. |
| Week minus 8 | Identify assigned employees and all affected employees. Confirm whether regulation 13A applies (fewer than 50 employees, or fewer than 10 transferring) or whether representatives must be elected. If elections are needed, start now. |
| Week minus 6 | Transferee sets out its envisaged measures in writing to the transferor. Transferor drafts the regulation 13(2) information pack. |
| Week minus 5 | First communication to staff: the fact of the transfer, the date, the reasons. Start consultation. |
| Week minus 4 (at the latest) | Employee liability information sent, accurate as at a date no more than 14 days earlier. This is the regulation 11(6) deadline of not less than 28 days before the transfer. |
| Week minus 4 to minus 2 | Consultation meetings on measures. Q&A sessions. Individual meetings for anyone with a specific concern. Reply to representations in writing, with reasons where rejected. |
| Week minus 3 | Payroll data handover. Pension arrangements confirmed. Benefits providers notified. |
| Week minus 2 | Parallel payroll run. Right to work check plan agreed. Written confirmation to each transferring employee of what is and is not changing. |
| Week minus 1 | Notify any changes to the employee liability information in writing under regulation 11(5). Final reconciliation of holiday balances and outstanding pay. Welcome pack issued. |
| Transfer date | Contracts transfer automatically. Welcome session. Named contact available all week. |
| Week plus 1 | First payroll check. Fix anything broken immediately and tell people you are fixing it. |
| Month plus 1 | Review meeting. Confirm accrued holiday, pension contributions and benefits are all running. |
| Month plus 12 | Earliest point at which collectively agreed terms can be renegotiated under regulation 4(5B), if overall no less favourable. |
Where employee representatives must be elected, add three to four weeks at the front. Where 20 or more redundancies are proposed, collective redundancy consultation obligations run in parallel and have their own minimum periods, covered on our business change page.
Acas notes that if 20 or more employees face redundancy risk, consultation can start before the transfer if both employers agree.
What is changing in the law that affects TUPE?
Two things on the near horizon.
1 October 2026: tribunal time limits double. Acas confirms that from 1 October 2026 the time limit for most employment tribunal claims increases from 3 months minus 1 day to 6 months minus 1 day, where the time limit starts on or after that date. On legislation.gov.uk, both regulation 12 (failure to notify employee liability information) and regulation 15 (failure to inform or consult) of TUPE carry prospective amendments made by Schedule 12, paragraph 13 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 to the three-month periods they contain.
Practically: keep your transfer file, consultation records and employee liability information correspondence for longer, and expect the window for a regulation 15 complaint after a transfer to widen.
1 January 2027: unfair dismissal becomes a day-one-ish right. Acas states that from 1 January 2027, employees will have the right to claim unfair dismissal after 6 months of being in a job instead of 2 years, and the limit on compensation for unfair dismissal will be removed. This matters for TUPE because regulation 7 unfair dismissal claims currently sit alongside ordinary unfair dismissal claims that many short-service transferring employees cannot bring. After January 2027, a much larger group of transferred employees will be able to bring an ordinary unfair dismissal claim about a post-transfer restructure.
The takeaway for anyone planning a transfer with a restructure behind it: do the restructure properly, or do it before the rules change and still do it properly.
Frequently Asked Questions
Talk it through
TUPE is one of those subjects where an hour of advice at the start saves a great deal later. DaisyHR supports employers in Bolton, Greater Manchester and across the North West on both sides of a transfer: due diligence and the transfer-in plan, or the consultation and handover on the way out.
Related: business change and restructuring | day-to-day HR guidance for managers
Compiled by Samantha Boyle MCIPD — Fractional HR Director, Bolton & North West. CIPD Chartered (Level 7). · Last reviewed: 15 September 2026