Statutory Notice Period by Length of Service: UK Rules 2026/27

The statutory notice ladder

UK employment law sets a floor for how much notice an employer must give before ending someone's employment (outside of gross misconduct dismissals). The statutory minimum, set out in the Employment Rights Act 1996, works on a simple ladder based on complete years of continuous service:

Each additional complete year of service adds one more week, until the cap of 12 weeks is reached after 12 complete years — the statutory minimum does not keep rising beyond that point, however long someone has worked for the same employer.

Employee notice, by contrast, stays at a flat one week under statute, no matter how many years someone has worked, unless their contract specifies something longer (which is common for senior or specialist roles, where three months' or six months' notice from the employee is often contractual).

Contractual notice vs statutory notice

The statutory ladder is a legal minimum, not a template employers must use. Many employment contracts specify their own notice periods — often a flat period like "one month" or "three months" regardless of service length, or a ladder of their own. The rule is straightforward: whichever is longer applies, contractual or statutory.

Worked example: Tom has worked for his employer for 6 complete years. His contract says his notice period is "one month." The statutory minimum after 6 years is 6 weeks (about 1.4 months), which is longer than his contractual one month. Tom is entitled to the statutory 6 weeks, because the contract cannot undercut the statutory floor.

If instead Tom's contract said "three months' notice," that would apply, because it exceeds the 6-week statutory minimum.

Notice during probation

Once someone has worked continuously for at least one month, they become entitled to at least one week's statutory notice — this applies even if they are still within a probationary period specified in their contract. Many contracts set a shorter probationary notice period (such as one week regardless), which is fine as long as it does not fall below what statute requires once the one-month threshold is passed. Employees with under one month's service generally have no statutory notice entitlement at all, though good practice and many contracts still provide some notice.

Payment in lieu of notice (PILON)

Employers sometimes prefer to end employment immediately and pay the employee for their notice period instead of requiring them to work it — this is a payment in lieu of notice. Since April 2018, all PILON payments are treated as earnings for tax purposes, meaning they are subject to Income Tax and Class 1 National Insurance in full, whether or not the contract has an explicit PILON clause. This closed an older loophole where some PILON payments could be treated more favourably as part of a termination payment.

This is different from a redundancy payment or genuine compensation for loss of office, which can benefit from the £30,000 tax-free termination payment exemption — but the notice-period element itself is always taxed as normal pay first.

What happens if notice is not given

If an employer dismisses someone without giving the correct notice (and without a valid PILON clause or gross misconduct justification), the employee can bring a claim for wrongful dismissal — essentially a breach of contract claim for the pay they would have received during the notice period. This is separate from an unfair dismissal claim, which looks at whether the reason and process for dismissal were fair, and normally requires two years' qualifying service, whereas a wrongful dismissal claim for unpaid notice has no minimum service requirement.

Practical tips

• Always check your written contract first — it may specify more generous notice than the statutory minimum.
• Remember statutory notice rounds up in whole weeks based on complete years, not months or part-years.
• If you are made redundant, notice pay and statutory redundancy pay are two separate entitlements — check both are being calculated correctly.
• PILON is always taxed as normal earnings; do not assume it falls within the £30,000 tax-free termination allowance.