Employment Tribunal time limits are changing: what GP practices need to know

From 1 October 2026, the time limit for bringing most Employment Tribunal claims will increase from three months to six months. In practical terms, Acas describes the deadline for most affected claims as six months minus one day.

The change affects many of the claims employers are most likely to encounter, including unfair dismissal, discrimination, unlawful deductions from wages and a wide range of other statutory employment rights. Equal pay and statutory redundancy pay claims already generally have a six-month time limit.

For GP practices, this means an employment dispute may remain capable of progressing to tribunal for considerably longer than it does now.

The change is not retrospective

One important point is that the new deadline will not simply apply to every outstanding workplace issue on 1 October.

Generally, the six-month limit applies where the relevant event occurs on or after 1 October 2026. Where the event occurred before that date, the existing three-month limit will normally continue to apply. Practices may therefore need to work with both sets of time limits during the transition.

For example, the relevant date for an unfair dismissal claim is normally the effective date of termination, while discrimination claims are generally linked to the act complained of. Different rules can apply where there has been continuing conduct or a series of events.

What should GP practices do now?

Practices should review their HR processes before October, particularly:

• Update policies, handbooks and HR guidance referring to the three-month tribunal limit
• Retain grievance, disciplinary, dismissal, absence, performance and associated correspondence appropriately
• Make sure investigation notes and management decisions are properly documented at the time
• Remind managers that a dispute should not be treated as effectively closed simply because three months have passed
• Continue dealing with grievances, appeals and disputes promptly rather than allowing the longer deadline to slow internal processes

There is another important distinction. Following an internal grievance, disciplinary or appeal process does not stop the tribunal time limit running. Where Acas Early Conciliation applies, notifying Acas within the relevant period can pause the limitation clock while early conciliation takes place.

What about Scotland?

Most of the six-month changes apply across Great Britain from 1 October 2026. Breach-of-employment-contract claims in Scotland are being dealt with separately, with the Government currently planning for the six-month limit to apply from 9 November 2026. As at 18 September 2026, the necessary Scottish Order remains subject to parliamentary approval.

The practical message for practices

The important change for employers is not simply replacing “three months” with “six months” in a handbook.

A longer claims window makes good contemporaneous HR records even more important. Six months after a difficult conversation, performance meeting or dismissal, managers may remember events differently, staff may have moved on and emails or documents may be harder to locate.

Good documentation, clear decision-making and properly managed HR processes remain one of the strongest ways for a practice to demonstrate what happened and why.

This article provides general information and should not be treated as specific legal advice.