Law at Work: Hot topics

The 2025 Immigration year: what does your UK business need to know?

In contrast to April 2024, the Home Office has not welcomed in the 2025/26 financial year with wide reaching changes for sponsor companies and visa holders. This is partly because the government has released an extensive Immigration White Paper (see here). However, a number of smaller changes have been announced which will affect all UK companies who sponsor or employ visa holders. Vikki Wiberg and Charlie Pring summarise these here: The 2025 Immigration year – What does your UK business need to know?

Government issues call for evidence on reform to equality law

On 7 April 2025, the Office for Equality and Opportunity published a call for evidence inviting feedback on existing equality legislation and possible equality law reform which will inform the forthcoming Equality (Race and Disability) Bill. It is looking for evidence and views on:

• the prevalence of pay discrimination on the basis of race and disability
• extending the equal pay provisions in the Equality Act 2010 to race and disability
• measures to ensure employers cannot outsource services to avoid paying equal pay
• improving the enforcement of equal pay rights by setting up a new Equal Pay Regulatory and Enforcement Unit, with the involvement of trade unions
• improving pay transparency (looking across to mechanisms in the EU Pay Transparency Directive)
• strengthening protections against combined or dual discrimination
• ensuring the Public Sector Equality Duty is met by all parties exercising public functions
• creating and maintaining workplaces and working conditions free from harassment.

These potential future equality law reforms are extensive and would involve considerable changes for employers. However, further consultation on the Equality (Race and Disability) Bill is expected once the views expressed in this call for evidence have been considered.

The call for evidence runs until 30 June 2025.

Separately, the consultation on mandatory ethnicity and disability pay reporting closes on 10 June 2025.