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The 2026/27 employment law compliance calendar for veterinary practices

Eleven dated changes land between April 2026 and April 2027. Most practices know about two of them. This compliance calendar puts every one on a single page with the date, what actually changes, what your practice has to do about it, and a column for who owns it and whether it is done.

It is an Excel workbook, it is free, and we email it to you.

What is on it

• 6 April 2026. The annual leave records duty, six year retention, and failing it is a criminal offence. Statutory sick pay reform, with waiting days and the lower earnings limit both gone. Day one paternity and unpaid parental leave.
• 7 April 2026. The Fair Work Agency opens, and does not need a complaint to start looking.
• 30 October 2026. Third party harassment, where the third party is your clients. The sexual harassment duty raised to all reasonable steps. The trade union statement, which has no small employer exemption even though the access rights next to it do.
• 1 January 2027. The unfair dismissal qualifying period falls from two years to six months, which retires the six month probation.
• April 2027. Minimum wage enforcement moves from HMRC to the Fair Work Agency, and holiday pay enforcement begins.

Three sheets, not one list

• Dated changes. The eleven statutory items, each with the practical action, who it applies to, an owner column and a status dropdown that turns green when you mark it done.
• Annual cycle. The nine things that come round every year regardless of what Parliament does, from checking pay against the April rates to archiving the leave year in December.
• Sources. Where each item comes from, so you can check any of it yourself rather than taking our word for it.

Why we built it this way

Most compliance summaries tell you what changed. That is the easy half. The useful half is what a practice with fourteen staff and no HR department is supposed to do on a Tuesday, and who is doing it. Every row has an action written for a practice rather than a legal update, and an owner column, because a change with no name against it does not happen.

It is a starting point, not legal advice. Where something matters, the Sources sheet tells you where to check.

Each dated item has a guide of its own if you want the detail: the annual leave records duty, third party harassment, the trade union statement, the unfair dismissal qualifying period and the Fair Work Agency.