Working time and flexible working

The Working Time Regulations 1998 (WTR 1998), SI 1998/1833 provide basic minimum rights to work a reasonable number of hours and have reasonable rest breaks and holidays. They also include special protections for night workers and young workers who are considered to be at particular risk. However, a large number of people are either wholly or partially excluded.

Eligibility for working time rights

The provisions setting out who is covered by WTR 1998 are complicated. Some whole job sectors are totally excluded. Other sectors are partially excluded.

Even if a worker's job type is covered by WTR 1998, their specific job may be subject to one of the 'special case' exemptions, or be one which is not entitled to the full protection of the regulations because they control their own hours, work unusual shifts or because they are covered by an opt-out under a collective agreement.

For further information, see Practice Note: Eligibility for working time rights.

Hours of work and working time

Workers and employers are free to agree any hours of work they choose up to the maximum working hours set out

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Right to work guidance updated on Digital Verification Service checks

The Home Office has issued an updated version of its ‘Employer’s guide to right to work checks’ document, with the changes primarily related to simplifying the information on digital checks for employers of British and Irish citizens who have a valid passport (or Irish passport card). The new version has removed various technical details which were previously intended for providers of these digital verification services, and revised the relevant terminology, so that ‘Digital Verification Service (DVS)’ now includes both the terms Identity Service Providers (IDSPs) and Identity Document Validation Technology (IDVT). This is stated to align the guidance with the terminology used in the UK digital identity and attributes framework and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025. Guidance and requirements specifically for DVS are now set out in a separate, supplementary code for digital right to work checks. The relevant guidance for employers has been revised. Although it is not currently mandatory for employers to use a DVS certified against the ‘trust framework’ and the supplementary code, this position will change ‘in the near future’, and it will become mandatory to use a DVS listed on the register of certified DVS (maintained by the Office for Digital Identities and Attributes (OfDIA)). In other changes, the new version reiterates that an original expired BRP is not proof of a right to work, and instead an online check must be taken. It also confirms that short-term entry clearance vignettes are being phased out, and that increasingly persons recently issued entry clearance will only have their eVisa to rely on for these purposes, so will need to create a UKVI account as soon as possible and can do this from overseas. In relation to asylum seekers with a pending claim, the guidance now states that they can also volunteer whilst their claim is considered without being granted permission to work, but they can only carry out 'paid' work if they have been granted permission to work under the Immigration Rules, Part 11, paras 360 or 360C. Previously the reference in our quotation marks to ‘paid’ work stated ‘voluntary’ work

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