UK Bosses Will Have to Meet You Before Refusing Flexible Work

Employers in Great Britain who want to turn down a flexible working request will have to hold a meeting with the employee first, explore alternatives and put the outcome in writing, under a process the Department for Business and Trade plans to bring into force in autumn 2027. First Secretary of State Louise Haigh put it to the TUC conference in plain terms: if an employer wants to turn down a request, they will have to sit down with their employee. If you have ever had a request declined by email in a single line, this is the rule that changes that. At Metaintro we look at what a legal change does to an ordinary conversation with your manager. Below is what the government has actually committed to, and a step by step guide to making a request that holds up under the current rules and the new ones.

What Will Your Employer Have to Do Before Saying No?

The detail sits in the government's response to its own consultation, published the same week as the speech, and it is more specific than the headlines.

Under the government response, an employer considering a refusal must hold a meeting whose purpose is to test whether the arrangement you asked for is feasible, work through any problems, and, if it is not feasible, look for a suitable alternative. The meeting must be held with a view to reaching an agreement with you. That phrase replaced an earlier proposal that a named decision maker must attend, which ministers dropped after employers, including very large ones, raised concerns.

The setup rules are concrete. The meeting must take place inside the two month decision window, you must get fair and reasonable notice, and you must be told the purpose of the meeting in advance. There will be no fixed notice period in law, so the length of fair notice will come through guidance.

Inside the meeting, the employer must spell out any challenges it sees with your request and explain why it would not be feasible, referring to the relevant business reason. It must then consider whether those challenges can be worked around, for example by agreeing a different start date or a trial period.

Afterwards, you get two things in writing. One is the outcome of the meeting, meaning a summary of the conclusions or next steps. The other is the final decision on the request, stating whether it was approved, rejected or replaced by an alternative, and the response makes clear the first is not a duty to take detailed minutes.

Employers must hold a meeting before rejecting a flexible working request, and it must be held with the view to reaching an agreement with the employee.

One honest caveat on the headline. Nothing in the response requires the meeting to be physically in the same room. The current Acas Code of Practice already allows a meeting in person, by video, or by telephone where neither is possible. Face to face here means a real conversation, not necessarily a shared desk.

Is There a New Legal Test for Refusals?

Yes, and it is the bigger change of the two.

All employees already have a legal right to request flexible working, which employers must consider in a reasonable manner. A refusal must name one of the eight existing grounds for refusal and give an explanation. The Employment Rights Act 2025 adds a requirement that employers only reject a request where it is reasonable to do so, and that they set out the basis for the decision by referring to the relevant reason. In practice that ends the tick box refusal. Naming a ground is no longer enough. The employer has to show the ground genuinely applies to you.

The government response confirms the test will come into force by secondary legislation, and that Acas will publish detailed guidance on how it works later this year. Employers asked for exactly that. The British Chambers of Commerce wanted government to set out what it considers reasonable, with guidance that makes this clear for employers. Further statutory guidance is yet to be published, and the consultation set out a more collaborative approach to how workers discuss changes to their working patterns with managers.

The same push shows up in the wider coverage. Ministers want fair consideration to stop being a box ticking exercise, and the TUC welcomed the reforms as a step that would make requests harder to refuse.

When Does It Start, and What Happens Before Then?

Not this year. The parent law, the Employment Rights Act, passed earlier this year, but both the meeting process and the reasonableness test are intended to take effect in autumn 2027.

The route there has two steps. Acas will first put a draft update to its Code of Practice out for public consultation. The revised Code is then due to be laid before Parliament in early summer 2027, so that it takes effect alongside the new regulations.

Two things did not make it in. There will be no statutory right of appeal, and no legal right to bring a companion to the meeting, although the Acas Code of Practice already treats both as good practice.

How Do You Make a Statutory Request Today?

The current rules already give you most of what you need, and a request made properly now is the one that will count when the new test lands. Here is the sequence.

Step one. Pick a specific arrangement. The law covers the hours, times or place you work. The GOV.UK list of recognised patterns includes job sharing, hybrid working, compressed hours such as a 9-day fortnight, flexitime around core hours, annualised hours, staggered hours and phased retirement. Choose one and describe it exactly.

Step two. Put it in writing, with four items. Your email or letter must include the date, a statement that this is a statutory request for flexible working, how you want to work and when you want to start, and whether and when you made a previous request, under the GOV.UK rules. Acas publishes a free request template. You do not have to explain the effect on the business yourself.

Step three. Check your allowance. You can make 2 applications in any 12-month period, from your first day in the job. You can only have one live request at a time, and it stays live through any appeal.

Step four. Go to the meeting. An employer must discuss your request with you before refusing it, which is already the current law. Ask to bring a colleague or union representative, which the Acas Code treats as good practice. Do not miss it. An employer can treat a request as withdrawn if you miss 2 meetings without good reason.

Step five. Hold the employer to the clock. All requests, including appeals, must be decided within two months of the employer first receiving them, unless you both agree to extend. If you agree an extension, get it confirmed in writing.

Step six. Read the answer closely. If you get a yes, your contract must be changed no later than 28 days after approval. If you get a no, the written decision should clearly explain the business reason, and the Acas Code of Practice says it should tell you how to appeal. If the request was not handled reasonably, you may be able to complain to an employment tribunal.

You are also protected while you do all this. An employer must not subject you to any detriment or dismissal because you made or intend to make a request, under the Acas Code of Practice.

What Are the Eight Grounds an Employer Can Use?

These are the only lawful reasons for a refusal, and the new test will ask whether each is reasonable in your case. The GOV.UK list reads:

• extra costs that will damage the business
• the work cannot be reorganised among other staff
• people cannot be recruited to do the work
• flexible working will affect quality
• flexible working will affect performance
• the business will not be able to meet customer demand
• there is a lack of work during the proposed working times
• the business is planning changes to the workforce

Read that list before you write your request, because it tells you what your manager will reach for. If cover is the problem, say who picks up your work on your non-working day. If customer demand is the worry, show the hours you keep. A request that answers the likely ground in advance leaves far less room for a reasonable refusal.

Why Do So Many People Never Ask?

Because the request feels risky, and the consultation evidence shows how much that holds people back.

Of the 727 individuals who answered, 74.3% had considered making a request in the previous three years, and only 61.7% of those went on to submit one. > A quarter of the people who asked, 26.1% of those reporting an outcome, could not agree any arrangement with their employer.

The reasons for not asking are specific. Among people who considered a request but did not make one, 63.3% thought it would be rejected, 51.7% worried about their career development, 36.7% expected an unsupportive line manager and 24.6% were put off after a colleague was refused. One respondent described a consultation meeting that lasted less than 11 minutes, with compromises never explored.

Separate survey work points the same way. At the CIPD, 30% of employees would not feel comfortable requesting formal flexible working, and 3% have left a job in the last year because of a lack of flexibility. The same CIPD survey found 91% of employers offer some kind of flexible arrangement, yet two fifths say that just some (28%) or only a few (12%) of their employees are actually able to work flexibly. That is the gap between policy on paper and access in practice.

Some 91% of employers offer flexible working, yet two fifths say only some or a few of their staff are actually able to use it.

Hybrid working has also slipped, with 74% of organisations offering it against 84% in a similar 2023 survey, and 65% requiring staff in the workplace a minimum number of days. The upside for people who get flexibility is clear, since 80% of employees say it has had a positive impact on their quality of life.

How Have Employers Responded?

With real concerns, and it is worth knowing them because they will shape your meeting.

Among employers in the consultation, 77.8% worried that agreeing one request could lead to a large number of similar requests, and only 5.6% reported no challenges at all. Employment lawyers have warned of extra legal and administrative burdens, and a small firm without HR staff will feel a formal meeting as genuine overhead.

Unions see the same reform from the other side. Employees who believe a request was unreasonably refused will have grounds to challenge it, which is exactly why the paper trail matters.

What This Means for Your Next Request, and How Should You Use It?

The reform does not give you a right to work from home or to a four day week. As the minister put it in her speech to the TUC, not every job can be done from home and not every request can be agreed. What it gives you is a proper conversation and a reason that has to stand up.

So write for the person who will have to justify saying no. Name one arrangement, pre-empt the likeliest of the eight grounds, and offer a trial period, since both the current Acas Code and the coming process treat trials as a normal way to test an arrangement. Ask for a meeting now rather than waiting for the law. Keep every written reply, because once the reasonableness test is live, that paper trail is how a refusal gets tested.

Use your two requests with a plan. Spend the first on the arrangement you actually want and keep the second for a fallback, rather than repeating the same ask. And if you are job hunting, ask about flexible working at interview. How an employer handles requests today tells you more about its culture than any policy, and the Acas Code of Practice already encourages employers to advertise that they are open to discussing it.

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People Also Asked

Q: When do the new UK flexible working rules start?

A: The meeting requirement and the reasonableness test are both intended to take effect in autumn 2027, alongside an updated Acas Code of Practice. Until then, the current rules apply, including the duty to discuss a request before refusing it.

Q: Can my employer still refuse a flexible working request?

A: Yes, but only for one of the eight business reasons set out in law, and once the new test is in force the refusal must also be reasonable. As Louise Haigh put it to the TUC conference, not every request can be agreed, but every request can be taken seriously.

Q: How many flexible working requests can I make a year?

A: You can make 2 applications in any 12-month period, starting from your first day in a job, and only one can be live at a time under the Acas Code of Practice.

Know your rights. Metaintro tracks which employers are actually advertising flexible and hybrid roles, so you can find one that says yes rather than one that has to explain no. Create a free profile and search roles on your terms.