Your Right to Request Flexible Working
Since 6 April 2024 every employee has had the legal right to request flexible working from their first day in a job — no qualifying service needed. Employers must follow a statutory procedure and can only refuse on specific business grounds. The Employment Rights Act 2025 will go further by requiring refusals to be reasonable and explained, but that change was not yet in force in July 2026.
Last updated: 2026-07-30
Your Rights
A Day-One Right to Ask
Anyone with the legal status of employee can make a statutory flexible working request from the first day of employment. The 26-week service requirement was abolished from 6 April 2024.
Changes to Hours, Times or Place of Work
A request can cover the hours you work, the times you are required to work, or working from home rather than your employer's premises — which includes part-time hours, compressed weeks, flexitime, job-sharing and hybrid arrangements.
Two Requests in Any 12 Months
You may make up to two statutory applications to the same employer in any 12-month period, though you cannot run two at the same time.
A Decision Within Two Months — Including Any Appeal
Your employer must deal with the application in a reasonable manner and notify you of the decision within the two-month decision period (extendable only by agreement). The Acas Code says all requests, including appeals, must be decided and communicated within that period.
Consultation Before Any Refusal, and Only Eight Lawful Grounds
An employer cannot reject your request without consulting you first, and may refuse only for one or more of eight statutory reasons: extra costs; detriment to customer demand; inability to reorganise work; inability to recruit; detriment to quality; detriment to performance; insufficient work in the periods proposed; or planned structural changes.
Protection From Retaliation
You must not suffer any detriment for making (or proposing to make) a flexible working request, and a dismissal for that reason is automatically unfair — with no qualifying service needed for such a claim.
Coming Next: Refusals Will Have to Be Reasonable
The Employment Rights Act 2025 will only allow refusal where the employer considers a listed ground applies AND it is reasonable to refuse on that ground, with the grounds stated to the employee. As at July 2026 this had been commenced only for the purpose of making regulations, so it is not yet the operative law — the government's roadmap points to 2027.
Common Myths
You need six months' service before you can ask for flexible working.
Since 6 April 2024 the statutory right to request applies from your first day of employment — no minimum service at all.
Your employer can simply say no.
A statutory request can only be refused on one or more of the eight business grounds in the legislation, after consulting you, with a decision (including any appeal) inside two months. Mishandling the process is itself a tribunal claim.
Flexible working just means working from home.
The statute covers changes to your hours, your working times and your place of work — so part-time hours, compressed weeks, flexitime, job-shares and term-time working all count.
Asking will put your job at risk.
Subjecting you to a detriment for making a request is unlawful, and dismissing you for it is automatically unfair — protections that apply from day one.
One refusal is the end of the story.
You should be offered an appeal, and you can make a second statutory request within the same 12 months. Once the Employment Rights Act 2025 change commences, employers will also have to show the refusal itself was reasonable.
What To Do
Put the Request in Writing
Date it, state explicitly that it is a statutory flexible working request under section 80F of the Employment Rights Act 1996, describe the change you want and the date you would like it to start.
Make the Business Case
You do not have to explain the effect on the business any more, but a short paragraph on how cover, quality and customer demand will be managed makes agreement far more likely.
Engage With the Consultation
Attend the discussion meeting, consider alternatives or a trial period, and keep notes — the employer must consult you before refusing.
Use the Appeal
If refused, appeal in writing within the employer's timescale. The whole process, appeal included, must finish within two months of the original request unless you agree an extension.
Escalate If the Process Was Broken
If the employer missed the deadline, refused outside the eight grounds, based the decision on incorrect facts or retaliated, contact Acas for early conciliation — tribunal claims must normally start within three months.
Key Legislation
- Employment Rights Act 1996, Part 8A (ss.80F–80I)
- Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023
- Flexible Working (Amendment) Regulations 2023 (SI 2023/1328)
- Acas Code of Practice on requests for flexible working (2024)
- Employment Rights Act 2025, s.9 (not yet fully in force)
Useful Contacts
Acas
Free advice on making and handling flexible working requests, plus the statutory Code of Practice.
Tel: 0300 123 1100
WebsiteGOV.UK — Flexible Working
Official guidance on the statutory request procedure and applying to work flexibly.
WebsiteCitizens Advice — Work
Help understanding your options if a request is refused or mishandled.
WebsiteEmployment Tribunals
Where to claim if your employer breaches the statutory flexible working procedure.
Website