Employment law 2013: progress on reform By Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Businesses have told us that dismissing staff is time-consuming and difficult, sometimes inadvertently leading to unnecessary employment tribunal claims. The risk is that the fear of being faced with tribunal claims impedes growth because businesses become too cautious to hire people or to address capability issues in the workforce. In April 2012 we increased the qualifying period for Unfair Dismissal from one to two years to address this risk and business concerns that more time is needed to make sure they have made the right hiring decision. Whilst this provides businesses with greater flexibility to make difficult decisions around dismissal, the change does not affect fundamental employee protections which are in place from the first day of employment.