last updated 15.08.2025

Yes, our Policy Team will be responding to the call for evidence which the Government recently launched on unpaid internships.  

As part of the Government’s Plan for Change (specifically its plans to break down barriers to opportunity), the Government has committed to banning unpaid internships, unless they are part of an educational or training course. The call for evidence therefore focuses on the following issues: unpaid internships and internships paid below the National Minimum Wage (NMW); unpaid work trials and work trials paid below the NMW; voluntary workers; volunteers; and work shadowing. 

Make UK is keen to gather the views of our members on this topic - please contact us with any comments by 1 September 2025.

Separately, our Policy Team will also be responding to the following Government consultations and calls for evidence in due course: the consultation on new arrangements for apprenticeship assessment; the call for evidence on parental leave and pay; the call for evidence on skills for transport manufacturing; and the call for evidence on employment support for disabled people. Please contact us if you have any comments you would like us to share with Government on these issues.

Make UK has recently launched a new Employment Rights Bill knowledge base which is a dedicated space on our website to support employers through the most significant reform of employment law in a generation. Our knowledge base includes a 10-part Spotlight Series, which we have built to help you to understand what will be changing and what you need to do next.

Each Spotlight focuses on one of the following core areas of reform: unfair dismissal; fire and re-hire; harassment; flexible working; collective redundancy; statutory sick pay; family friendly reforms; trade unions; equality action plans; and zero-hours contracts.

You can also find information at the end of each Spotlight about how Make UK can support your business moving forwards.

Employees who go absent without leave (AWOL) pose a challenge for employers, particularly where it has not been possible to make contact with the individual concerned.

As an employer you have a duty of care towards your employee, so if an employee goes AWOL, you should try to contact them to check they are safe. Acas recommends following certain steps, including getting in touch with the employee's emergency contact if you cannot make direct contact with the individual concerned. It may be that the employee has a valid reason for their unauthorised absence (such as a family emergency), in which case it would be reasonable to expect them to notify you of this in line with your policies as soon as they can. Keep a record of your attempts to contact them and make clear that you are keen to find out the reason for their absence. If you have serious concerns about the employee’s welfare, it may be appropriate to contact the police.

If you have made concerted efforts to contact the employee without success, you will need to consider what approach is best based on the facts of the specific situation. Depending on the circumstances, including how absence is addressed in your HR policies, it may be appropriate to follow your disciplinary process. This would usually involve conducting an investigation into the employee’s unauthorised absence, inviting the employee to a disciplinary hearing, rescheduling that hearing if the employee did not turn up (in accordance with the Acas Code), and then holding the reconvened hearing in the employee’s absence. If the employee did not attend the reconvened hearing, you could dismiss the employee in their absence. However, it is important to note that there is no “one-size-fits-all” answer to this question; you should be guided by the specific circumstances of an employee’s disappearance and your assessment of the legal risks in each case.

Keep in mind too that the Government plans to make significant changes to the current rules on unfair dismissal in the Employment Rights Bill. To read more see our new Employment Rights Bill knowledge base, and specifically our Unfair Dismissal: Employment Rights Bill Spotlight Series.

If you are a Make UK subscriber, you can speak to your regular adviser for further guidance on how best to respond in an individual case. If you are not a Make UK subscriber, you can contact us for further support on this topic or to access our resources. Please click here for information on how we can help your business. 

Under the Employment Rights Bill (the Bill), statutory paternity leave and unpaid parental leave will become available from day one of employment. (Currently, these entitlements are only available once an individual has been continuously employed for 26 weeks or one year respectively.)

According to the Government’s implementation roadmap, day one rights to paternity leave and unpaid parental leave will come into force in April 2026. As with many of the planned changes under the Bill, detailed regulations will be needed.

Notably, in addition to the changes outlined above, a parent will be able to choose to take shared parental leave before paternity leave (currently paternity leave must be taken first or is lost).  This will give employees more flexibility as to which type of leave they take (and when) to care for their child.

Once these changes become law, employers will need to update their relevant family leave policies and practices. With this in mind, we recommend taking a thorough look at them now so that you can anticipate the types of amendments you may need to make in due course.

Separately, it is worth noting that the Government has launched a full review of all current statutory family leave and pay entitlements (as promised in its Plan to Make Work Pay). The review will look at the whole family leave statutory framework to see how the system could work better for parents/carers and employers. For further details, including information about the Government’s call for evidence (to which Make UK will be responding over the coming weeks), see our earlier e-alert Supporting staff with the summer holiday juggle.

You can read more about proposed changes under the Bill in our new Employment Rights Bill knowledge base (with a focus on family friendly reforms here).

If you are a Make UK subscriber, you can speak to your regular adviser about any queries you may have and/or to request further consultancy support.

If you are not a Make UK subscriber, you can contact us for further support. Please click here for information on how we can help your business.

Employee Liability Information (ELI) is a term which is relevant in the context of a TUPE transfer. The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) apply to protect employees when either the business they work for changes ownership (known as a “business transfer”), or where there is a change in provider for the services the employees provide (known as a “service provision change”).

Where TUPE applies, an outgoing employer is required to provide certain basic information (the ELI) about each transferring employee to the incoming employer. ELI includes: the names, ages and all the particulars of employment that an employer is required to give to the employee under section 1 of the Employment Rights Act 1996; details of disciplinary and grievance procedures which have been taken against or by the transferring employee in the previous two years; applicable collective agreements; and any court or tribunal claim which has been brought by the employee against the employer within the previous two years, or which the employer has reasonable grounds to believe the employee may bring.

Although the new employer can ask for it sooner, the outgoing employer does not need to provide the ELI until 28 days before the transfer.  Disclosure of the ELI is permissible under data protection law on the basis that the old employer is complying with a legal obligation when it provides the information. 

If the required ELI is not provided, an employment tribunal can award the new employer compensation of whatever sum it considers just and equitable, which will not normally be less than £500 in relation to each employee involved.

If you are a Make UK subscriber, you can speak to your regular adviser for further guidance about ELI and TUPE transfers and/or access further information about this in the HR & Legal Resources section of our website.

If you are not a Make UK subscriber, you can contact us for further support on this topic or to access our resources. Please click here for information on how we can help your business.