What to do before a fixed-term contract ends

The maternity cover finishes at the end of November. The project contract runs to 31 March. The end date was agreed at the start, written into the contract, and nobody has thought about it since.

That is why it gets missed. Letting a fixed-term contract run out is a dismissal in law, and from 1 January 2027 the protection that comes with a dismissal reaches much further. As checked on 7 October 2026, section 25 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 cuts the unfair dismissal qualifying period from two years to six months and removes the cap on the compensatory award. Employment Rights Act 2025, section 25. Regulations made on 26 May 2026 bring it into force on 1 January 2027, where the effective date of termination falls on or after that date, even where the employee was dismissed before it. Commencement regulations, SI 2026/559. The government's timetable lists January 2027 and states that all future dates remain subject to parliamentary processes and may change. Government implementation timetable. The wider list of dates is on our Employment Rights Act key dates page.

Know why the end date is still a dismissal

GOV.UK gives a two-part test: the person has an employment contract with the organisation they work for, and the contract ends on a particular date or on completion of a specific task, like a project. It does not cover someone contracted to an agency rather than to your business, a student or trainee on a work-experience placement, someone under a "contract of apprenticeship", or a member of the armed forces. GOV.UK on what counts as a fixed-term contract.

Now the part that catches people out. GOV.UK says that fixed-term contracts "will normally end automatically when they reach the agreed end date" and that "the employer does not have to give any notice". The same page says that not renewing "is considered to be a dismissal". GOV.UK on renewing or ending a fixed-term contract.

Both are correct. The statute calls this a limited-term contract, ending on a limiting event: the expiry of the term, the performance of a specific task, or an event occurring or failing to occur. Employment Rights Act 1996, section 235. An employee is dismissed where such a contract "terminates by virtue of the limiting event without being renewed under the same contract". Section 95. You give no notice because nothing has to be done to bring the end date about, but a dismissal has still happened, so the usual questions follow: was there a fair reason, and did you act reasonably.

Ending the contract early is a termination by notice, so the statutory minimum applies: a week once someone has been continuously employed for a month, a week for each year from two years, twelve weeks at twelve years. The contract may give longer and cannot give less. Employment Rights Act 1996, section 86. Check first whether it allows early termination at all.

Before you rely on an end date, check the start date of the first contract. The four-year rule reaches renewals and successive contracts, not every long contract: regulation 8 applies only where the current contract has previously been renewed, or where the person was already on a fixed-term contract before this one began. Where it applies and someone has been continuously employed for four years or more under that contract, or under that contract taken with a previous one, the provision restricting its duration has no effect and the employee is permanent, unless the use of a fixed-term contract was justified on objective grounds when it was last renewed or entered into. Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002, regulation 8.

A first contract that has run four years without ever being renewed does not convert on its own. Continuous employment is worked out under Chapter 1 of Part 14 of the 1996 Act, and any period before 10 July 2002 is ignored. A collective or workforce agreement can put a different limit in place of the four-year test.

An employee who thinks they have become permanent can ask you in writing to confirm it. You have 21 days to confirm, or to give your reasons, including the objective grounds if you rely on them. They can ask a tribunal for a declaration, but only after asking you first and only while still employed by you. Regulation 9.

The written statement given to a fixed-term hire has to say how long the job is expected to last, and it falls due with the rest of the principal statement on the first day. Acas on written statements. Our guide to onboarding without the paperwork chase covers the rest of that day-one pack.

Name the reason, and work out what is owed

Where a dismissal is challenged, you have to show the reason, and that it was either one listed in section 98(2) or "some other substantial reason of a kind such as to justify the dismissal of an employee holding the position which the employee held". Employment Rights Act 1996, section 98.

Acas sets out the five potentially fair reasons and gives "a fixed-term contract ending" as one of its examples of some other substantial reason. Acas on types of dismissal. The label is available, but it is not automatic and it is not a free choice. It follows the facts.

A dismissal is by reason of redundancy where it is wholly or mainly attributable to the business ceasing, or to its requirements for employees to carry out work of a particular kind having ceased or diminished, or being expected to. "Cease" and "diminish" mean permanently or temporarily and for whatever reason. Employment Rights Act 1996, section 139.

A seasonal contract ending because the work has gone, or a project contract ending because the funded work has finished, sits there. Where the work carries on and only the reason for the temporary arrangement has fallen away, which is the position when the person covered comes back, the end of the cover is the substantial reason instead.

The label decides the money. A redundancy payment is owed where the employee "is dismissed by the employer by reason of redundancy". Employment Rights Act 1996, section 135. It needs at least two years' continuous service: half a week's pay for each full year up to the employee's 22nd birthday, a week's pay for each full year after the 22nd and one and a half weeks' pay for each full year after the 41st. Weekly pay is capped at £751 and service at 20 years, so the maximum is £22,530. GOV.UK on redundancy pay. Check the figure on that page before you calculate, because the cap has moved before.

Scroll across the table if needed.

Write down which one it is and why, before the conversation rather than after it. Where the answer is redundancy, our guide to making one or two roles redundant sets out the pool, the consultation and the notice steps.

Run a short process before the end date

There is no statutory procedure for a fixed-term expiry. The reasonableness test in section 98(4) still applies, and it takes account of the size and administrative resources of the business, so a twenty-person firm is neither judged as though it had an HR department nor excused a process. Employment Rights Act 1996, section 98.

Two honest limits here. Acas has no current page on fixed-term contracts: the old advice sits on an archive site carrying the notice "it is archived and may not be up to date". Acas archive page on fixed-term work. And the Acas Code of Practice does not reach this situation either. Paragraph 1 says the Code "does not apply to redundancy dismissals or the non-renewal of fixed-term contracts on their expiry", so the uplift a tribunal can apply for failing to follow it is not in play. Acas Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures.

What does apply is the reasonableness test and Acas's general dismissal guidance. For a dismissal to be fair the employer must have a valid reason and make a decision that is balanced, consistent and as fair as possible. Acas says that an employer dismissing an employee should tell them why they have been dismissed, when the contract will end, their notice period if there is one, and their right to appeal, and calls putting it in writing, in a letter or an email, a good idea. Acas on dismissals.

One duty is specific to fixed-term staff and is regularly missed. A fixed-term employee has the right to be informed of available vacancies in the establishment, and counts as informed only if the vacancy is in an advertisement they have a reasonable opportunity of reading in the course of their employment, or they are given reasonable notification some other way. Regulation 3. A permanent role circulated to permanent staff only, or pinned up where someone on leave will never see it, does not count.

The same regulation bars treating a fixed-term employee less favourably than a comparable permanent employee as regards the terms of the contract or by any other detriment, and names three particulars: any period of service qualification, the opportunity to receive training, and the opportunity to secure any permanent position in the establishment. It bites only where the treatment is on the ground that the person is a fixed-term employee and is not justified on objective grounds.

Regulation 4 adds one route to justification: treatment as regards a contractual term counts as justified where the fixed-term contract's terms, taken as a whole, are at least as favourable as the comparable permanent employee's. Regulation 4. GOV.UK's worked example is a company car withheld on a three-month contract "if the cost is too high". GOV.UK on fixed-term employees' rights.

Written reasons for the dismissal are owed on request, within fourteen days, where the employee has two years' continuous service at the effective date of termination. Employment Rights Act 1996, section 92. GOV.UK's fixed-term sub-page gives one year's service for this. GOV.UK on renewing or ending a fixed-term contract. The Act sets two, and on 1 January 2027 it falls to six months along with the unfair dismissal qualifying period. Government guidance on unfair dismissal rights.

No source sets a period of notice for the conversation itself, so treat any figure you are given as somebody's practice rather than a rule. What matters is that the decision is not the first the person hears of it.

Take extra care where the person is pregnant or on maternity leave

An end date falling during pregnancy or maternity leave is still a dismissal, and several further duties come into play.

Unfavourable treatment in or after the protected period because of a pregnancy or a pregnancy-related illness is pregnancy and maternity discrimination. So is unfavourable treatment because the employee is exercising or seeking to exercise the right to maternity leave, and that limb carries no time condition. The protected period begins when the pregnancy begins; for an employee with the right to ordinary and additional maternity leave it ends at the end of additional maternity leave, or earlier if she returns to work before then. Equality Act 2010, section 18.

A dismissal is automatically unfair, with no qualifying period at all, where the reason or principal reason is connected with the pregnancy or with taking maternity leave, where it is connected with the birth and the dismissal ends her maternity leave period, and where the reason is redundancy and regulation 10 has not been complied with. Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations 1999, regulation 20, Employment Rights Act 1996, section 108.

Regulation 10 applies where it is not practicable by reason of redundancy to keep employing her under her existing contract during the protected period of pregnancy, the statutory maternity leave period, or an additional protected period running to eighteen months from the first day of the expected week of childbirth, or from the birth where she has told you the date. The protected period of pregnancy begins when you are told of the pregnancy, not when it began. Where there is a suitable available vacancy she is entitled to be offered it before her existing employment ends, on terms not substantially less favourable. Regulation 10.

Note the boundary. Regulation 10 is engaged only where the reason is redundancy. Where a cover contract ends because the person covered has returned, the requirement for employees to do that work has usually not ceased or diminished, so the reason is unlikely to be redundancy and the duties in play are the vacancies duty in regulation 3 and the ordinary fairness test. The facts decide that, not the label. Seek appropriate advice before confirming an end date in either case.

A written statement of the reasons for dismissal is owed without any request, and whatever the length of service, where the employee is dismissed at any time while she is pregnant, or after childbirth where her maternity leave period ends because of the dismissal. The same applies on adoption leave. Employment Rights Act 1996, section 92.

The government's timetable lists "enhanced dismissal protections for pregnant women and new mothers" under 2027 with no date attached. The enabling provision is already in force: section 26 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 commenced on 6 January 2026 and lets the Secretary of State make regulations about dismissal other than by redundancy during or after a protected period of pregnancy. No regulations have been made under it, so nothing has changed for an employer yet. Employment Rights Act 2025, section 26. Government implementation timetable.

Get the file and the dates ready for 1 January 2027

For a fixed-term expiry the file is short: the written statement showing the expected duration, your note of the reason and the date you decided it, the invitation to the meeting, a dated note of what was discussed, the permanent vacancies you told the person about and when, the letter confirming the end date and the right to appeal, and the redundancy pay calculation if one is due.

Keep it longer than you used to. Since 1 October 2026 the time limit for most tribunal claims has been six months rather than three. Employment Rights Act 2025, Schedule 12, SI 2026/954. The limit under the fixed-term regulations went to six months on the same date. SI 2026/758. For a complaint about not being told of a vacancy the clock runs from the date other people were told, which is worth recording at the time. Fixed-term Employees Regulations 2002, regulation 7. Our guide to how long to keep leaver records works the arithmetic through.

Until 1 January 2027 an employee needs two years' continuous service to bring an ordinary unfair dismissal claim. Employment Rights Act 1996, section 108. From that date it is six months, the qualifying period for requesting written reasons falls to six months as well, and the cap on the compensatory award goes. The changes apply in England, Scotland and Wales and not in Northern Ireland. Government guidance on unfair dismissal rights.

Because the rule turns on the effective date of termination, the arithmetic reaches further back than the end date suggests. Anyone whose contract ends on or after 1 January 2027 and who started on or before 1 July 2026 has six months' service at the end date, so a seven-month maternity cover that began in July 2026 and runs out in February 2027 is inside the new rule. It is the same arithmetic that changes how probation works, and our guide to the six-month unfair dismissal qualifying period sets out the review rhythm that goes with it.

One item to watch without acting on it. The government's timetable lists the right to guaranteed hours and the right to reasonable notice and short notice payments under 2027, and says the timings will be updated after consultation. The timetable does not say which contracts they reach, so whether a seasonal fixed-term contract with hours that move week to week is one of them is still open, and there is nothing to do about it yet. Government implementation timetable.

One person should own this, usually whoever holds the contracts, and an hour covers it: list every fixed-term contract with its start and end date, mark the ones ending on or after 1 January 2027, mark anyone on a renewed contract approaching four years, and diarise a date well before each end date to decide and to tell the person. The guidance moves, so check it again when the date comes round, and take advice on the individual case before you confirm anything.

Common questions

Is not renewing a fixed-term contract a dismissal?

Yes. GOV.UK states that not renewing a fixed-term contract "is considered to be a dismissal", and section 95(1)(b) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 treats an employee as dismissed where a limited-term contract ends on its limiting event without being renewed under the same contract. That means you need a fair reason and a fair process, even though the end date was agreed at the start. GOV.UK on renewing or ending a fixed-term contract; Employment Rights Act 1996, section 95.

Do I have to give notice when a fixed-term contract ends?

Not for the agreed end date. GOV.UK says fixed-term contracts "will normally end automatically when they reach the agreed end date" and that "the employer does not have to give any notice". Ending the contract before that date is a termination by notice, so the statutory minimum in section 86 applies and you should check whether the contract allows early termination at all. GOV.UK on renewing or ending a fixed-term contract; Employment Rights Act 1996, section 86.

Is a fixed-term contract ending redundancy or some other substantial reason?

It depends on whether the work has gone. Where the requirement for employees to do work of that kind has ceased or diminished, the reason is redundancy under section 139, and a redundancy payment is owed at two years' service or more. Where the work continues and only the reason for the temporary arrangement has fallen away, Acas gives "a fixed-term contract ending" as an example of some other substantial reason, and no statutory redundancy payment arises. Employment Rights Act 1996, section 139; Acas on types of dismissal.

Can a fixed-term contract end while the employee is pregnant or on maternity leave?

The end date is still a dismissal, and extra duties apply. A dismissal connected with the pregnancy, the birth or taking maternity leave is automatically unfair with no qualifying period, and unfavourable treatment for those reasons is pregnancy and maternity discrimination. Where the reason is redundancy and there is a suitable available vacancy, regulation 10 entitles her to be offered it before her existing employment ends. A written statement of reasons is owed without any request. Seek appropriate advice before confirming the date. Maternity and Parental Leave etc. Regulations 1999, regulation 10; Equality Act 2010, section 18.