Notice Periods in the UK: Your Rights Explained

If you are facing dismissal, redundancy, or thinking about resigning, the first practical question is usually the same: what notice period applies? In the UK, the answer comes from two places - the statute and your contract. Section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 sets a floor of minimum notice that no contract can undercut, and your contract can build on top of it.

Many people assume the notice period is whatever the employer says it is. The reality is stricter: the statutory minimums apply automatically, and an employer who dismisses you with less notice than you are owed is breaking the contract.

What notice period are you entitled to by law?

The statutory minimum notice your employer must give you depends only on your length of continuous service:

So an employee with 7 complete years of service is entitled to 7 weeks' statutory notice; an employee with 20 years gets the capped 12 weeks, not 20.

Going the other way, the statutory minimum an employee must give when resigning is just 1 week once you have been employed for a month - it does not increase with service. Anything longer comes from your contract.

Statutory vs contractual notice: which one applies?

Your contract of employment can set any notice period it likes, in either direction, subject to one rule: it can be longer than the statutory minimum, but never shorter. If your contract says 1 month but you have 9 years' service, the statutory 9 weeks wins. If your contract says 3 months and you have 2 years' service, the contractual 3 months wins.

In practice:

• Whichever is longer applies - compare your contract against the table above.
• If you have no written contract, the statutory minimums still apply, and a "reasonable notice" term may be implied on top for senior roles.
• A contract that purports to give less than statutory notice is overridden by section 86 on that point.

What does notice pay include?

During your notice period you remain an employee, so you are entitled to your normal pay and contractual benefits - salary, pension contributions, and usually benefits such as a car allowance or health cover, depending on the contract's wording. Holiday continues to accrue during notice, and any untaken statutory holiday must be paid on termination.

A quick ready-reckoner. Suppose you have 8 complete years of service and a salary of £32,000:

• Statutory notice: 8 weeks
• Weekly pay: £32,000 divided by 52 = £615.38
• Notice pay if you work the notice or receive pay in lieu: 8 x £615.38 = £4,923.04 gross

That figure is before tax, and it sits on top of accrued holiday pay and, in a redundancy, on top of any statutory redundancy payment.

What are PILON and garden leave?

Payment in lieu of notice (PILON) is where your employer ends the employment immediately and pays you what you would have earned over the notice period instead of having you work it. Most modern contracts contain a PILON clause. Two things to know:

• PILON is fully taxable as earnings. It does not benefit from the £30,000 tax-free treatment that can apply to genuine ex-gratia termination payments, even when it is bundled into a bigger package.
• If there is no PILON clause in the contract, paying in lieu is technically a breach - usually a harmless one if you are paid in full, but it can matter if the contract contains restrictive covenants.

Garden leave is different. You are told to stay at home during your notice period, but you remain employed, paid, and bound by your duties - including confidentiality and any restriction on working for a competitor. Your employment ends only when the notice period expires.

Can you be dismissed without notice?

Only in one situation: gross misconduct. Conduct serious enough to destroy the employment relationship - theft, violence, serious dishonesty, gross negligence - entitles an employer to dismiss summarily, without notice or notice pay.

Outside gross misconduct, dismissal with less than your full notice entitlement is a breach of contract known as wrongful dismissal. It is a different claim from unfair dismissal: wrongful dismissal is about the notice money, not the fairness of the decision, and it has no minimum service requirement. The wrongful dismissal guide covers how those claims work and what they are worth. If the dismissal itself was unfair as well as short on notice, an unfair dismissal claim may run alongside.

What are your duties when you resign?

Resigning triggers your own notice obligations:

1. Check your contract first - it may require 1 month, 3 months, or more.
2. If the contract is silent, the statutory minimum of 1 week applies once you have a month's service.
3. Put the resignation in writing with a clear end date, and keep a copy.

Two common questions. Can you withdraw a resignation? Not unilaterally - once given, a clear resignation stands unless your employer agrees to the withdrawal, with a narrow exception for words blurted out in the heat of the moment. And can your employer refuse to let you work your notice? They can place you on garden leave or, with a PILON clause, pay you off immediately - but they must pay you for the notice period either way.

What happens to notice in a redundancy?

Statutory notice applies in full during redundancy. You are entitled to your notice period (or PILON) on top of statutory redundancy pay - they are separate entitlements, and an employer cannot roll one into the other. Many redundancy timetables run consultation first, then serve notice, with the termination date at the end of the notice period.

How the redundancy payment itself is calculated - the age-banded formula, the weekly pay cap, the 2-year qualifying rule - is covered in the redundancy pay guide.

What can you do if your notice is not paid?

Unpaid or underpaid notice is recoverable. There are two routes:

• An unlawful deduction from wages claim under section 13 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, where pay you were due was simply not paid.
• A breach of contract (wrongful dismissal) claim, which an employment tribunal can hear for up to £25,000 if brought within the time limit after termination.

Either way, the deadline is short: 3 months less 1 day from the relevant date, and you must start ACAS Early Conciliation before a tribunal claim can be issued. The tribunal deadlines guide explains how the clock works, and the free tribunal deadline calculator will work out your dates. In practice, missing the deadline almost always bars the claim, so calculate it first and let everything else follow.

Key takeaway

Work out your two numbers - the statutory minimum from the table above and whatever your contract says - and the longer one is your notice period. If you have been dismissed with less than that, or your notice pay has not arrived, the law is on your side, but only inside the 3-months-less-1-day window. Check your deadline before anything else.

This article is legal information, not legal advice. If your situation is complex - for example, a senior contract with restrictive covenants or a disputed summary dismissal - you may want to consider taking independent legal advice.