Employment Contracts and the Statement of Particulars 2026

If you employ people in the UK, you are legally required to give every employee and every worker a written statement of their main terms of employment by the end of their first day. That statement is the legal floor. The contract of employment sits on top of it and is what actually protects your business.

This is one of the topics I am asked about most often and it is also one of the areas where I see the most expensive mistakes. Either there is no written contract at all or there is one that was written years ago and no longer reflects the law, the role or the reality of how the business operates.

In 2026 it matters more than ever to get this right. The Employment Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent in December 2025 and the first significant tranche of changes came into force in April 2026. Several of those changes affect what your contracts and statements of particulars need to say and the qualifying period for unfair dismissal is also reducing, which means a poorly drafted contract carries real legal risk far earlier in the employment relationship than it used to.

Here is what you need to know.

What is a contract of employment?

A contract of employment is formed the moment someone agrees to provide their work in exchange for pay. It can be verbal, written or a mixture of both. In practice it is almost always a mixture. A recruiting manager offers the role over the phone, the candidate accepts and a contractual relationship exists from that moment. The written documentation that follows is the record of what was agreed.

The written contract does two distinct jobs. First, it satisfies the legal requirement to give the employee a written statement of particulars. Second, it captures the additional terms and conditions that protect the business. Things like deductions from wages, flexibility on hours or location and restrictions after employment ends only become legally binding if they are written down and agreed.

A verbal contract is technically valid in law but it is almost impossible to enforce when something goes wrong. If there is a dispute about what was agreed, the version with the most evidence behind it wins. That is rarely the version held only in the recruiting manager’s memory.

Is a written contract of employment a legal requirement?

There is no legal requirement to issue a full written contract of employment. There is a legal requirement to issue a written statement of particulars by the end of the employee’s or worker’s first day. Most employers combine the two into a single document, which is what I always recommend.

There are three reasons to issue a proper written contract rather than the minimum statement.

The first is protection. Clauses around deductions from wages, working time flexibility, post-employment restrictions and confidentiality only bind the employee if they are in writing and have been agreed. Without them you may find you cannot recover a training cost, cannot stop an employee working for a direct competitor or cannot ask a salaried employee to work a one-off Saturday.

The second is dispute resolution. When something goes wrong, the contract is the document everyone refers back to. A clear written agreement resolves arguments before they reach formal grievance or tribunal stage.

The third is recruitment. Issuing a proper contract at the point of offer signals professionalism and builds trust. Candidates increasingly will not hand notice in to their current employer until they have seen the terms of the job they are leaving for. If your offer is a verbal call followed by silence, you lose people.

What is a written statement of particulars?

The written statement of particulars is defined in Section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and the list was significantly expanded in April 2020. It must be given to every employee and every worker by the end of their first day. The Employment Rights Act 2025 then added a further requirement on top of that list, which I cover in the next section.

The statement must include:

• The employer’s name and address

• The employee’s name

• The job title or a description of the work

• The start date

• A statement covering whether any previous job counts towards the period of continuous employment

• All remuneration, both in cash and in kind, including how much and how often the employee will be paid

• The hours of work, including whether the employee will have to work Sundays, nights or overtime

• The specific days and times the employee is required to work

• Where the employee will be working, including any other locations and the employer’s address if they will be working in different places

• The duration and conditions of any probationary period

• Holiday entitlement, including how it accrues and what happens to unused leave (see our guide to holiday entitlement for how to set this out correctly)

• Training provided by the employer, required by the employer or required by the employer where they will not bear the cost

• How long the job is expected to last if it is temporary or the end date if it is fixed term

• Notice periods on both sides

• Collective agreements that apply

• Pension arrangements

• Who to report a grievance to

• How to complain about the way a grievance is handled

• How to complain about a disciplinary procedure or dismissal decision

• Details of other paid leave, including maternity, paternity, adoption and the new bereaved partner’s paternity leave that came into force in April 2026 The following information can be held in a separate document, such as an employee handbook but the statement must tell the employee where to find it:

• Sick pay entitlement and procedures

• Disciplinary and dismissal procedures

• Grievance procedure There are additional requirements if an employee is going to work outside the UK for more than one month.

What does the Employment Rights Act 2025 change for employment contracts?

The Employment Rights Act 2025 introduces a number of changes that affect what your contracts and statements of particulars need to contain and how seriously employers should treat getting them right. The Act became law on 18 December 2025 and the changes are being phased in across 2026 and 2027.

The most directly relevant changes for the written statement of particulars and the contract of employment are these.

The right to join a trade union statement. From October 2026, when you issue a written statement of particulars to a new employee or worker you must also give them a separate written statement advising them of their right to join a trade union. The specific wording and format are still being consulted on but the requirement itself is in the Act. This is a new mandatory document that sits alongside the statement of particulars and your onboarding paperwork needs to include it.

Reduced qualifying period for unfair dismissal. The qualifying period is being reduced from two years to six months. This is the single most important change for how employers think about contracts. A poorly drafted contract used to carry limited risk in the first two years because the employee could not bring an unfair dismissal claim. From the date this change takes effect, that protection drops to six months. Errors and ambiguities in your contracts become tribunal exposure far more quickly than they did before.

Statutory sick pay from day one. SSP becomes payable from the first day of absence rather than after a three-day waiting period and the Lower Earnings Limit threshold is removed. Your contract’s sick pay clauses and any reference to SSP in your statement of particulars, need to reflect this. If your contract still says SSP is payable from the fourth day of absence, it is wrong.

Paternity and parental leave as day one rights. Both become available from the first day of employment rather than after a qualifying period. The “other paid leave” section of your statement of particulars needs to reflect this.

Bereaved partner’s paternity leave. This came into force on 6 April 2026 as a new statutory entitlement for a partner where the mother or primary adopter dies within a year of birth or adoption. Modern contracts should reference it in the paid leave section.

Extended tribunal time limits. From October 2026, the time limit for most tribunal claims, including unfair dismissal, discrimination and harassment, is expected to extend from three months to six months. This does not change what your contract says but it doubles the window during which a contractual mistake can be challenged.

For a fuller picture of what the Act covers and when, ACAS publishes up to date guidance on the Employment Rights Act 2025.

When should I issue the contract of employment?

The legal minimum is the end of day one. The practical answer is at the point of offer.

When you offer someone a job you are entering into a contractual relationship. If you wait until day one to put the terms in writing, you are asking the employee to accept those terms after they have already left their previous employer. That is a poor position for everyone. It is far easier to insert clauses, agree variations or correct misunderstandings before someone starts than it is after.

I also see far fewer rejected offers when the contract goes out with the offer letter. Candidates are increasingly cautious about handing in notice to an existing employer until they have seen written terms. If your offer is a verbal commitment followed by paperwork on day one, you will lose people to employers who have moved faster.

If you have offered terms before the start date and the candidate refuses to sign, that is useful information. It tells you there is no agreement. If you only discover the disagreement on day one or in the first week of employment, you have a much harder problem. I have written more on what to do when an employee will not sign their contract if you find yourself in that position.

What is the difference between the statement of particulars and a full employment contract?

The statement of particulars is the legal minimum. The contract is what actually runs the employment relationship.

A comprehensive contract goes beyond the statutory list and includes the terms that protect the business and define how the role works in practice. The exact contents depend on the business but a good contract typically covers things like:

• Deductions from wages (essential if you ever want to recover an overpayment or training cost)
• Short time working and lay off provisions
• Flexibility clauses for hours, days, location or duties
• Confidentiality and intellectual property
• Restrictive covenants for after employment ends
• Garden leave
• Mobile working, hybrid working or remote working terms Alongside the contract sits the employee handbook. The handbook holds the policies and procedures that govern day to day working, things like dress code, IT use, social media, family friendly policies and the detail of disciplinary and grievance procedures. The handbook is usually non contractual so that you can update it as the business changes without needing every employee to sign off on every change. You can read more in the guide to essential HR documentation every business should have.

What are the most common errors in employment contracts?

A few patterns come up again and again.

Hours that do not reflect the reality of the job. A contract that says “Monday to Friday, 9 to 5” with no flexibility clause leaves you unable to require attendance at an evening team meeting, an early morning client call or a Saturday event. Industries where shift patterns, on call duties or seasonal peaks are normal need contracts that actually describe that pattern.

Bonuses written in as contractual entitlements. A bonus referred to in the statement of particulars without the word “discretionary” and without clear criteria can become a contractual right the employer has to pay regardless of performance or business circumstances. I have seen organisations forced to pay bonuses in years where they could not afford them because of one badly drafted clause.

Start times that are ambiguous when travel is involved. When an employee has to drive to a client site, “start time 8am” can mean leaving home, leaving the depot or arriving at the site. The contract should make this explicit, particularly for trades, field service and care roles.

No provision for changes. Contracts that do not include a clause allowing reasonable variation make it harder, slower and riskier to update terms when the business needs to. A well drafted contract anticipates change.

Out of date legal references. Any contract issued before April 2026 that has not been reviewed against the Employment Rights Act 2025 changes is now out of date in at least some respects. The sick pay clauses, the paternity leave references and the probation period provisions are the most common areas where contracts need updating.

Adjustments and flexibility for neurodivergent employees. This is the area where I increasingly see contracts becoming a problem. Where the contract is rigid on hours, location or working pattern, requests for reasonable adjustments become harder to manage because every adjustment looks like a contractual variation. A contract with sensible flexibility clauses makes adjustments easier to put in place and easier to defend.

What happens if you get it wrong?

The direct legal sanction for failing to issue a statement of particulars is limited. An employment tribunal can award compensation of two or four weeks pay, capped at the statutory weekly limit but only if the employee has succeeded in bringing another substantive claim such as unfair dismissal. As a standalone penalty it is not large.

The real cost is everywhere else.

A poorly drafted contract is the foundation of almost every contractual dispute I am called into. Ambiguous hours, unclear bonus terms, missing deductions clauses and absent restrictive covenants all become expensive when something goes wrong. The unfair dismissal qualifying period reducing to six months in 2026 sharpens this further. Errors that used to sit harmlessly in a contract for two years before exposing the business to a claim now do so in a quarter of the time.

The other cost is operational. A workforce running on contracts that do not match reality is a workforce where the answer to “do I have to do this?” is genuinely unclear. That hesitation costs time, costs management attention and corrodes the relationship between managers and their teams.

Where to focus in 2026

If you do nothing else this year on employment contracts, do these four things.

Review the sick pay, paternity leave and parental leave clauses in your standard contract against the April 2026 ERA 2025 changes. Most contracts written before late 2025 will need at least one of these updated.

Build the right to join a trade union statement into your onboarding pack ready for October 2026. The wording will be specified in regulations, so watch for that detail but the document itself needs to exist alongside the statement of particulars.

Check that your hours of work, flexibility and location clauses still reflect how the business actually runs. If the contract no longer matches reality, the contract is the problem, not the reality.

Review the contracts of any employee who has been with you for between six months and two years. From the date the new qualifying period takes effect, this group becomes able to bring unfair dismissal claims for the first time. If there is something in their contract or their working pattern that you have been planning to fix “eventually”, eventually is now.

Employment contracts are one of those pieces of HR infrastructure that carry most of the legal risk in a business. Get them right once, review them properly when the law changes and they will protect you for years. Leave them on a shelf and they will be the thing that costs you when something goes wrong.

While this guide covers the essentials, every contract is different and every business is different. If yours have not been reviewed since the Employment Rights Act 2025 became law, that review is the most useful thing you can do this year.