Notice Period UK 2026: Your Rights, Pay and Rules Explained

Notice period UK rules catch out more people than almost any other part of employment law. You hand in your resignation expecting to leave in two weeks, then discover your contract says three months. Or your employer lets you go and you have no idea whether you should be paid for the notice you never worked. Maybe you have been put on garden leave and you are not sure if you are allowed to start the new job early. The rules are not complicated once someone lays them out properly, but almost nobody explains them clearly at the point you actually need them. This guide sets out exactly how much notice you must give, how much you are owed, how notice pay is taxed, and what changes are coming.

Your notice period UK entitlement is whichever is longer: your contractual notice, or the statutory minimum. Employees must give at least one week’s notice after one month’s service. Employers must give one week after one month, then one week per complete year of service, capped at 12 weeks after 12 years.

Statutory Notice Periods in the UK for 2026

Statutory notice is the legal floor. It sits in section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 and it applies to employees across England, Scotland and Wales, with equivalent provisions in Northern Ireland.

The crucial thing to understand is that the employer’s obligation and the employee’s obligation are not symmetrical. Employers owe more notice the longer you have been there. Employees owe one week, full stop.

Notice your employer must give you

The pattern is simple: after two years you get one week for every complete year of service, and it stops growing at 12 weeks. Someone with 19 years’ service still gets 12 weeks statutory, not 19.

Notice you must give your employer

Once you have completed one month of continuous service, your statutory minimum is one week. It does not rise with service. A colleague who has been there 15 years owes the same statutory week as someone who joined last year.

That is the statutory position only. In practice most people are bound by a longer contractual notice period, which is where things get interesting.

Contractual Notice and Which One Wins

Your written statement of employment particulars must set out your notice period. If you have never read it properly, dig it out now, because contractual notice is what most disputes turn on. Our guide to UK employment contracts explained covers what else should be in that document.

The rule is straightforward. Whichever notice period is longer applies. A contract can be more generous than the statute but it cannot undercut it.

Worked example. Priya has worked for the same manufacturer for nine years. Her contract says one month’s notice on both sides. Her employer decides to let her go.

• Contractual notice: 1 month, roughly 4.3 weeks.
• Statutory notice: 9 weeks (one week per complete year).
• Result: her employer must give her 9 weeks, because statutory is longer.

Now flip it. If Priya resigns, her contractual month applies, because her contract asks more of her than the statutory one week. She owes one month.

Typical contractual notice periods in the UK look broadly like this, though there is wide variation by sector:

• Hourly-paid retail, hospitality and warehouse roles: one week to one month
• Office and administrative roles: one month
• Professional and specialist roles: one to three months
• Senior management and executive roles: three to six months, sometimes twelve

Resigning: How Much Notice You Must Give

If you are the one leaving, work through this in order.

1. Find your contract. Look for the clause headed “notice” or “termination”. Check whether the period differs during probation.
2. Compare it to the statutory week. Take whichever is longer.
3. Check when notice starts running. Many contracts say notice begins the day after it is received in writing, not the day you send the email.
4. Put it in writing. Verbal resignations create arguments about dates. Use our resignation letter template and state your intended last working day.
5. Ask, do not assume, about leaving early. Employers can waive notice, but only if they agree. Getting that agreement in writing protects you.

Leaving before your notice expires without agreement is a breach of contract. In reality most employers will not sue, because they would have to prove financial loss. But they can withhold pay for days not worked, decline to give a reference beyond the bare factual minimum, and in rare cases pursue costs where they had to hire an expensive temporary replacement.

Notice Pay: What You Should Actually Receive

During your notice period you remain an employee. That means normal pay, normal pension contributions, and continued accrual of holiday. Your pension, benefits and deductions should look no different on your final payslips, and it is worth checking them line by line. If any of it looks unfamiliar, our guide on how to read a UK payslip walks through each entry.

A few specific situations trip people up:

• Off sick during notice. Where your contractual notice is no more than a week longer than the statutory minimum, you are generally entitled to full notice pay even if you are only receiving statutory sick pay. Where your contract gives notably longer notice, that protection may not apply and contractual sick pay terms take over.
• Untaken holiday. Accrued but unused statutory holiday must be paid out on termination. Employers can also require you to take holiday during notice, provided they give the correct amount of advance warning.
• Commission and bonuses. Whether these are payable during notice depends entirely on the wording of the scheme. Read it before you resign, not after.
• Zero-hours and irregular hours. Notice pay is based on average earnings, usually over a reference period, rather than a fixed weekly figure.

PILON and How It Is Taxed

Payment in lieu of notice, universally shortened to PILON, is where the employer pays you for the notice period instead of asking you to work it. Your employment ends immediately and a lump sum lands in your final pay.

The tax treatment is the part almost everyone gets wrong. Since April 2018, HMRC has required employers to calculate post-employment notice pay, or PENP, using a statutory formula. As Lewis Silkin and other employment specialists have set out, any amount identified as PENP is subject to income tax and Class 1 National Insurance in full, through payroll.

This matters most in redundancy. The familiar £30,000 tax-free threshold applies to genuine termination payments, but it does not shelter notice pay. You cannot label notice pay as compensation and slip it under the threshold.

Quick comparison of the three ways notice can end:

If you are leaving through redundancy, the notice element and the redundancy element are taxed very differently. Our redundancy pay calculator guide breaks down how the statutory payment itself is worked out.

Garden Leave Explained

Garden leave means your employer tells you to stay away from work during your notice while keeping you on the payroll. It is common in sales, finance, technology and any role with access to clients or confidential information.

The key point is that you are still employed. That has consequences in both directions:

• You keep your salary, pension contributions and contractual benefits.
• Holiday keeps accruing, and your employer may instruct you to take some of it.
• You remain bound by your duty of fidelity, so you cannot work for a competitor, poach colleagues or start the new job early.
• Your employer can usually still ask you to return, or to help with a handover.

For tax purposes garden leave is treated identically to worked notice. There is no PENP calculation because you are still an employee being paid normally.

One practical point worth knowing: garden leave clauses are only enforceable if your contract contains one, or if your employer is willing to keep paying you in full. Sending someone home without pay and without a clause is simply a failure to provide work, and may amount to a breach.

When No Notice Is Required

There are limited circumstances where notice does not apply.

Gross misconduct. An employer can dismiss summarily, meaning without notice or notice pay, where the conduct is serious enough to destroy the employment relationship. Theft, violence and serious breaches of health and safety are the classic examples. The employer must still follow a fair process, and simply labelling something “gross misconduct” does not make it so.

Under one month’s service. Neither side owes statutory notice, though a contract may still specify some.

Fixed-term contracts reaching their end date. The contract expires on its own terms, although statutory notice can still apply where a fixed term has run long enough.

Mutual agreement. Both sides can agree a shorter notice period or an immediate departure. Get it in writing, including what happens to pay and accrued holiday.

Notice Periods in Redundancy

Redundancy does not shorten notice. You are entitled to the longer of your contractual and statutory notice, plus statutory redundancy pay if you have two or more years’ service. These are two separate entitlements and one does not absorb the other.

Some employers will ask you to work your notice while the redundancy consultation concludes. Others will pay it in lieu. Either is lawful, provided the contract allows PILON or you agree to it.

During redundancy notice you also have the statutory right to reasonable paid time off to look for new work or arrange training, if you have at least two years’ service. Use it. Two years of accrued goodwill is worth more spent on interviews than on tidying a handover document nobody will read. If you are using the gap to build a new skill, Coffee & Study’s personal development courses are a sensible place to start looking for something short and practical.

What Is Changing in 2027

The Employment Rights Act 2025 is being introduced in phases, and the change most relevant to notice and dismissal arrives at the start of 2027.

According to analysis from employment law firms including Brodies and Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner, the qualifying period for ordinary unfair dismissal claims is set to fall from two years to six months from 1 January 2027. The original proposal to make unfair dismissal a day-one right was dropped after amendments in the House of Lords, and no separate statutory probationary period was created.

Two practical consequences for anyone thinking about notice:

• Employers are likely to become more careful about process during the first six months, because the protection window shortens considerably.
• Statutory notice can extend your effective date of termination for qualifying-service purposes. If you are dismissed just short of the threshold, adding the statutory notice week can push you over it.

Nothing about the statutory notice table itself is changing. The section 86 minimums described above continue to apply.

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Assuming your contract is the final word

Plenty of contracts say “one month’s notice on either side” and stay that way for a decade while your service builds up. If your employer is dismissing you and statutory notice is now longer, the contract does not override it. Always calculate both figures and take the higher one.

Resigning verbally in a bad moment

A resignation given in anger is still usually a resignation. Once notice has been given, you generally cannot withdraw it without your employer’s agreement. If you are unhappy, take the weekend before you say anything you cannot take back.

Expecting PILON to be tax-free

People see the £30,000 figure in a settlement offer and mentally add the whole notice payment to it. PENP is taxed in full through payroll. Work out your net figure before you decide whether an offer is worth accepting.

Starting a new job during garden leave

You are still employed. Beginning work for a competitor mid-notice is a breach of your duty of fidelity and can give your old employer grounds to stop paying, and occasionally to seek an injunction. Confirm your actual termination date in writing before you sign anything new.

Forgetting to check what happens to holiday

Untaken statutory holiday must be paid out, but employers can also require you to take it during notice. If nobody raises it, you may reach your final payslip and find several days have quietly been designated as leave. Ask early and get the number confirmed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can my employer make me work my notice period?

Yes. If your contract does not include a PILON clause and your employer wants you to work your notice, you are contractually obliged to do so. Refusing is a breach of contract, and your employer can withhold pay for the days you do not work. In practice many employers will negotiate a shorter period, particularly if a handover is already complete or your replacement has started. Ask politely, put the agreed leaving date in writing, and confirm what happens to accrued holiday.

Do I get paid if I am dismissed without notice?

Unless you were dismissed for gross misconduct, you should be paid for your notice period even if you are not asked to work it. That payment is either worked notice, garden leave or a payment in lieu. Being dismissed without notice and without any notice pay, in circumstances that do not amount to gross misconduct, is called wrongful dismissal and you can bring a claim for the notice pay you should have received.

Does notice period apply during probation?

Yes, once you have completed one month of continuous service. Many contracts set a shorter notice period during probation, often one week, which is lawful because it matches the statutory minimum. Below one month of service, neither side owes statutory notice, though your contract may still specify something. Note that probation is a contractual concept rather than a statutory one, and the Employment Rights Act 2025 did not create a formal statutory probationary period.

Can I take holiday during my notice period?

You can request it, and your employer can also require you to take it. Holiday continues to accrue throughout notice, and anything left untaken must be paid out when you leave. If your employer wants you to use holiday during notice, they must give notice of at least twice the length of the leave they are asking you to take, unless your contract says otherwise.

What happens to my notice period if I am made redundant?

You get the longer of your contractual and statutory notice, exactly as in any other dismissal, plus statutory redundancy pay if you have two or more years’ service. The two are separate. You also gain the right to reasonable paid time off to look for work if you have at least two years’ service. Your employer may ask you to work the notice or pay it in lieu.

Is a longer notice period a good or a bad thing?

It cuts both ways. A long notice period gives you security and a longer runway of pay if you are let go. It also makes you slower to hire, because a new employer may not want to wait three months. If you are negotiating an offer, it is reasonable to ask whether the notice period is symmetrical, and many employers will agree to a shorter period during the first year.

Understanding your notice period puts you in a far stronger position, whether you are planning a move or bracing for one. If you are already looking, start with the live roles on our UK jobs board, where you can filter by sector and location and line up your next role while your notice runs down.