Answers · UK 2025/26

How long does redundancy consultation have to last?

For collective redundancies (20 or more employees at one establishment within 90 days), consultation must start at least 30 days before the first dismissal takes effect, or at least 45 days before if 100 or more redundancies are proposed. For fewer than 20 redundancies, there is no fixed minimum period, but consultation must still be meaningful.

Last updated: 1 July 2026Last reviewed: 1 July 2026How we verify

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Redundancy consultation rules differ sharply depending on how many employees are affected, and getting the collective consultation timing wrong exposes an employer to a protective award of up to 90 days' pay per affected employee. **Collective consultation thresholds** Collective consultation obligations are triggered when an employer proposes to make 20 or more employees redundant at one establishment within a 90-day period. Below 20 redundancies at one establishment, collective consultation rules do not apply, though individual consultation obligations still do. **Minimum consultation periods** Where 20 to 99 redundancies are proposed, consultation must begin at least 30 days before the first dismissal takes effect. Where 100 or more redundancies are proposed, the minimum rises to 45 days. These are minimum periods before the FIRST dismissal can take effect, not the total time the whole process must take. **Individual consultation for smaller-scale redundancies** Even where collective consultation thresholds are not met, employers are still expected to consult individually with each at-risk employee in a genuine, meaningful way before confirming redundancy, considering alternatives, and giving the employee a chance to respond, or risk the dismissal being found unfair. **Employee representatives** Collective consultation must generally happen with recognised trade union representatives or elected employee representatives, not just informally with individual staff, and covers ways of avoiding the redundancies, reducing the numbers affected, and mitigating the consequences. **Worked example** An employer proposing to make 35 employees redundant at one site must start collective consultation at least 30 days before any of those dismissals take effect; starting consultation only 20 days beforehand would breach the minimum period, risking a protective award claim. **Practical tip** Count affected employees across the whole 90-day window, not just a single announcement, since staggered redundancy rounds can still collectively trigger the 20-employee threshold and its associated minimum consultation period.