Trade union access request: the 15 working days to respond

An email arrives from a trade union. It asks to meet your staff at work once a week, or to send them messages through your intranet, and it says it is a request under section 70ZB(1). Nobody in the business is a union member as far as you know, and you have never been asked this before.

From 30 October 2026, a request like that starts a timetable. This guide covers how to recognise a statutory request, how the 15 working days are counted, what your headcount changes and what an agreement can ask of you.

As checked on 26 October 2026, section 59 of the Employment Rights Act 2025, which gives independent trade unions a right to request access to workplaces, is scheduled to come into force on 30 October 2026, so far as not already in force. SI 2026/1065, regulation 3(e). Until then it is in force only for the purpose of making regulations. SI 2026/3, regulation 2(19). The regulations that set the time limits and the 21-worker threshold were made on 15 October 2026 and also come into force on 30 October 2026. SI 2026/1101. So do the rules on what a request and a response notice must contain, made on 6 July 2026. SI 2026/756. So does the Code of Practice on the right of access. SI 2026/1103. All four extend to England and Wales and Scotland. The government's employer page, last updated 25 September 2026, still says "subject to parliamentary approval"; the time-limit regulations and the order bringing in the Code were made after that update, on 15 and 19 October 2026. Government guidance on trade union reform.

Check whether it is a statutory access request

Only a trade union with a certificate of independence can make a statutory request. Section 70ZA, Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. Access means physical entry into a workplace, communication with workers by any means, or both. The purposes are to meet, support, represent, recruit or organise workers, whether or not they are members, and to facilitate collective bargaining. The Act says those purposes do not include organising industrial action.

The law requires a statutory request to identify the union, include a copy of its certificate of independence, be in writing and dated, and state that it is made under section 70ZB(1) of the 1992 Act. SI 2026/756, regulation 3. It must also set out the purposes, the workers concerned, the kind and frequency of access asked for and why, the workplaces, any help asked of you and named union contacts.

It can arrive by post or by hand at your registered office, head office or principal place of business. It can also arrive by email, at an address you have given the union or, if you have not given one, at an address you publish for general contact. The Code says email should be used where possible and asks employers to make an address available. Code of Practice: Right of trade unions to access workplaces, paragraph 26. So the general inbox on your website is a route a request can take. The Code says minor clerical errors should not be a reason to reject a request, at paragraph 27.

An informal email asking whether a union officer could visit is not a statutory request. The Code encourages both sides to keep existing voluntary arrangements, or agree new ones outside the statutory process, at paragraphs 11 and 23.

Count the 15 working days from the day it arrives

The response period ends at the end of the 15th working day after the day the request is given. SI 2026/1101, regulation 3. A working day is any day other than a Saturday, Sunday, Christmas Day, Good Friday or a bank holiday under the Banking and Financial Dealings Act 1971. So a request given on Monday 2 November 2026 has a response period ending at the end of Monday 23 November 2026. The Code of Practice says the clock runs from the day the request is given, not the day it reaches the right person, at paragraph 30.

Your response is called a response notice. The Act describes it as a notice that you may give, agreeing or disagreeing with the request in whole or in part. Section 70ZB. The government's employer page puts it more directly: employers must respond within 15 working days. If no response notice arrives before the end of the response period, the union can apply straight to the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC), the body that decides access disputes, without any negotiation period. Section 70ZE.

The law requires the response notice to be in writing and dated, sent to the union official named in the request, and to state that it is given under section 70ZB(4) of the 1992 Act. SI 2026/756, regulation 4. It must give your contact details and name at least one person who can negotiate for you, and say whether you agree or disagree, in whole or in part. Where you agree, it must give workplace contacts, the categories of workers with approximate numbers and suitable times. Where you disagree, it must say which part and explain why. The Code includes a template for the notice and says employers should use it, though it is not a legal requirement, at paragraph 30. It also says a rejection should identify the specific elements refused and the reasons in as much detail as possible, at paragraph 32.

Once you give a response notice, the negotiation period runs to the end of the 25th working day after the day you gave it. SI 2026/1101, regulation 4. If you agree terms in writing, you notify the CAC jointly; if not, either side can apply to it. Any application must be made by the end of the 55th working day after the day the request was given, or the 70th if the CAC is satisfied an earlier application was not reasonably practicable. Regulation 5. The Code says the parties can agree to extend the response period, at paragraph 33.

A practical approach is to write three dates on the request the day it arrives: the date given, the last day of the 15 working days, and the 55th working day.

Count your workers before you reply

The law requires the CAC to refuse access where the employer, taken with any associated employer, employs fewer than 21 workers on the day it receives the request and an average of fewer than 21 workers in the 13 weeks ending with that day. SI 2026/1101, regulation 7. Both tests must be met. The average is the 13 weekly figures added together and divided by 13, counting people employed for only part of a week.

Three points change the count. First, "worker" in the 1992 Act is wider than "employee". It covers anyone working under a contract of employment or any other contract to do work personally for you, unless you are their professional client. Section 296. Casual and zero-hours staff who work for you personally are likely to be counted. Second, regulation 7 treats an agency worker who is not employed by their agency as having a contract of employment with the agency for the length of the assignment, so for this test they are counted as the agency's workers. Third, two employers are associated if one is a company the other controls, or both are companies controlled by the same person. Section 297. The Code of Practice gives the example of an employer of fewer than 21 workers that is part of a wider company employing 21 or more: it is in scope, at paragraph 21.

Regulation 7 is a rule the CAC applies to an application. Neither the Act nor the Code says a business under 21 workers can disregard the request. If you do not respond, the union can still apply to the CAC, and the CAC would then look at your numbers. A practical approach for a business of 10 to 20 workers is to reply within the 15 working days, say you disagree because the business, with any associated employers, has fewer than 21 workers on both tests, and keep the figures that show it. The 21-worker threshold does not apply to access you agree voluntarily, outside the statutory process, according to the Code at paragraph 23. Where your numbers sit close to 21, or agency staff or a group company decide which side you fall, seek appropriate advice before replying.

Know what an access agreement can ask of you

A CAC determination must be consistent with principles that include access in any manner that does not unreasonably interfere with your business, reasonable steps by you to facilitate it, and refusing access entirely only where that is reasonable in all the circumstances. Section 70ZF. Nothing in the Chapter requires entry into a dwelling or a disclosure of personal data without consent. Section 70ZL.

The regulations set out terms the CAC must treat as reasonable. SI 2026/1101, regulations 17 to 24:

• weekly access, where a week includes at least four working days, does not unreasonably interfere with your business
• you make available existing accommodation and facilities as is reasonable in all the circumstances
• you make sure, so far as reasonably practicable, that direct communications between workers and union officials are private
• the union gives at least five working days' notice before the first occasion of access and at least two working days' notice before each one after
• union officials follow your reasonable instructions, which may include showing identification

The CAC must also refuse access where the proposed agreement would allow access within five working days of its determination, or does not expire automatically within two years. It must refuse where national security or the prevention, detection or prosecution of crime requires it. Refusal is to be regarded as reasonable where some of the same workers are already covered by your recognition of another independent union, a live recognition request or another access agreement, where another access request covering any of the same workers is outstanding, or where access might jeopardise anyone's health or safety. The Code of Practice says employers are not expected to make significant structural changes to premises or IT systems, at paragraph 66.

On privacy, the Code says that where security cameras or other recording equipment could record access meetings, the employer should tell the union, unless key security considerations prevent it, and discuss how to keep meetings private, at paragraph 86. That might mean switching equipment off for the meeting, though the Code does not expect systems covering areas such as canteens to be switched off. It also says the employer should not listen in on meetings or press attendees to say what happened, should not record online meetings or monitor who attends, and should not track which workers open union emails, at paragraphs 87 and 88. The existing protections against detriment and inducements in sections 145A, 145B and 146 of the 1992 Act apply, the Code adds at paragraph 89. A worker has the right not to suffer a detriment for taking part in the activities of an independent trade union at an appropriate time. Section 146.

An access agreement is enforced only through the CAC. A party can complain of a breach within three months of the matter complained of. Section 70ZH. If the CAC declares the complaint well-founded and there is a further breach within 12 months, or a breach of its order, it can order a payment. Section 70ZI. The regulations cap that at £75,000 for the first such order under an agreement, £150,000 for the second and £500,000 for any later one. SI 2026/1101, regulation 25.

Decide who answers and keep the file

The Code of Practice says both unions and employers should keep records of access requests and responses that show when they were made and received, at paragraph 28. No retention period is set by the Act, the regulations or the Code. A practical file holds the request with the date and route it arrived, your headcount on that day and the 13 weekly figures, the response notice with the date you sent it, notes of the negotiation, any agreement and the CAC notification, and the union's notice of each visit.

Acas offers conciliation if you and the union cannot agree, and the Code says it will try to respond to a request within one working day, at paragraph 11. The CAC lists its guides, forms and decisions on its GOV.UK page; as checked on 26 October 2026, it showed no guide or form for access applications yet. Statutory recognition for collective bargaining is a separate process, with its own changes also due on 30 October 2026. SI 2026/1065, regulation 3(f).

The next step is to name who opens union correspondence, including the general inbox, and who can sign a response notice. Put the Code's response template where that person can find it, and work out your 13-week headcount once now, so a request does not start the count from nothing. Our guide to the Employment Rights Act 2025 key dates shows where this change sits in the wider timetable.

Common questions

Do I have to respond to a trade union access request?

The Act says an employer may give a response notice within the response period, which ends at the end of the 15th working day after the request is given (section 70ZB, SI 2026/1101, regulation 3). If none arrives in time, the union can apply straight to the Central Arbitration Committee (section 70ZE). Government guidance puts it as a requirement to respond within 15 working days (government guidance).

Can a union get access to a business with fewer than 21 workers?

The CAC must refuse access where the employer, with any associated employers, has fewer than 21 workers on the day it receives the request and an average of fewer than 21 over the 13 weeks ending that day (SI 2026/1101, regulation 7). Workers include people on contracts to work personally, not only employees (section 296). The threshold does not apply to access agreed voluntarily outside the statutory process, according to the Code of Practice, paragraph 23.

How often can a union visit under an access agreement?

The regulations say the CAC must treat weekly access as not unreasonably interfering with the business, where a week includes at least four working days, and must treat at least five working days' notice before the first visit and two before each later one as reasonable (SI 2026/1101, regulations 18 and 23). The Code adds that no statutory access agreement lasts longer than two years unless the parties agree to extend it (Code of Practice, paragraph 53).

What is the maximum penalty for breaching a trade union access agreement?

The CAC can order a payment only after it has upheld a complaint and there is a further breach within 12 months or a breach of its order (section 70ZI). The caps are £75,000 for the first such order under an agreement, £150,000 for the second and £500,000 for any later one (SI 2026/1101, regulation 25).