At a Glance: Employment and Incentives developments, March 2026 In March 2026, our guide (link below) included:
- Employment Rights Act 2025: Changes to SSP, paternity and parental leave, collective consultation penalties and whistleblowing, and the establishment of the Fair Work Agency, all taking effect from April 2026; Consultation on new organisation-wide threshold for triggering collective redundancy obligations; Equality action plan guidance.
- Non-competes reform: Competition and Markets Authority responds to working paper on reform of non-competes.
- Corporate governance: Latest reports from the FTSE Women Leaders Review on gender diversity and Parker Review on ethnic diversity.
- Market abuse: Proposed changes to ESMA Guidelines on delaying disclosure of inside information.
- Share plans: Block listing share issues and changes to UK Listing Rules announcements; End of 2025/26 tax year HMRC information including on EMI options, filing returns, penalties and reporting net-settling; FCA consulting on restricting the employee exemption for share offer prospectus requirement.
- Tax: Stamp Duty Manual updates for UK Listing Relief.
- Financial sector pay: The European Commission is seeking member states’ views on the EU investment firms (IFD/IFR) framework.
