Written statement on Implementing the Employment Rights Bill: Electronic and Workplace Balloting Consultation - Nov 19

Minister for Employment Rights (Kate Dearden): This Government's top priority is to grow the economy and improve living standards. We are clear that you cannot build a strong economy whilst having people in insecure work. For too long employment law has failed to keep pace with fundamental changes to how, when and where we work. This has allowed bad actors to take advantage of loopholes in the current law via exploitative practices, fuelling a race to the bottom, undercutting responsible businesses, and eroding the living standards of working people. We are clear that unfair competition, where a bad employer undercuts a good employer by reducing the terms and conditions of service for their employees, is bad for business, bad for workers and bad for growth. Our Plan to Make Work Pay will modernise our employment rights legislation, extending the employment protections already given by the best British companies to millions more workers across the country. Strengthening this underlying framework will help build an economy based on fair competition between businesses, greater productivity in the workplace, job security for workers, and fair reward for hard work.

As set out in our Implementing the Employment Rights Bill publication (published 1 July 2025), we are taking a phased approach to engagement and consultation on these reforms. This will ensure all stakeholders have the time and space to work through the detail of each measure and to help us implement each in the interests of all. Today I am launching a consultation seeking views on a draft Code of Practice on Electronic and Workplace Balloting. Alongside a programme of direct stakeholder engagement, this consultation will support us in determining how best to put our plans into practice.

At present, almost all statutory trade union ballots must be conducted solely by post. This approach is outdated, limits democratic participation, and no longer aligns with modern voting practices or workplace realities. The Government is committed to modernising the rules for statutory union ballots to bring union participation in line with modern voting practices that political parties and listed companies already use. Therefore, we will be permitting the use of electronic and workplace balloting for statutory union ballots, while retaining the existing option of postal balloting. This will be delivered through secondary legislation and will be designed to ensure the security, accessibility and integrity of the ballot, drawing from established balloting procedures.

The Government will introduce a new statutory Code of Practice to accompany these changes, setting out how electronic and workplace balloting should operate fairly and lawfully in practice. The Code will provide a clear and detailed guidance for unions, employers, workers and independent scrutineers, and will help ensure confidence in ballot outcomes. The Government is consulting on a draft version of this new Code of Practice. We welcome views from interested parties to ensure the Code is clear, balanced and practical for all. This represents the first step of our plans to deliver electronic balloting across a range of statutory union and industrial action ballots.

This consultation will run for ten weeks and will close on 28 January 2026.

Next Steps for consultation

This consultation sets out the next steps in delivering our plans. As trailed in Implementing the Employment Rights Bill, further packages of consultations are planned to launch over the Winter. These will be central to shaping the practical implementation of this legislation, helping Government deliver reforms that are both effective and inclusive. It is in everyone's interest to get the relationship between employer and employee right. This consultation will help us make work pay for both.