Statutory Notice Periods UK: How Much Must You Be Given?

The statutory minimum applies if you have been continuously employed for one month or more. It depends on your length of service:

Only full years count. For example, 4 years and 9 months of service gives a statutory minimum of 4 weeks.

If your contract does not say when your notice period starts, it starts the day after you tell your employer you are resigning, or the day after your employer tells you in person that you are being dismissed or made redundant. If your employer gives notice in writing, Acas says the notice period would start when you have had a reasonable amount of time to read it.

In Northern Ireland, nidirect gives the same minimums: one week if you have been continuously employed for between one month and two years, then one week for each complete year up to a maximum of 12.

• You must give at least a week's notice if you have been in your job for more than a month.
• The Employment Rights Act 1996 sets the legal minimum at one week once you have been continuously employed for one month or more.
• Your written statement of employment particulars must say how much notice you have to give your employer.
• Your contract, written statement of employment particulars or a staff policy might say you need to give more notice than the statutory minimum.
• Your contract will tell you whether you need to give notice in writing, otherwise you can give it verbally.
• GOV.UK says to give written notice if you think you will need to refer to it later, for example at an employment tribunal.

If you have worked for less than 1 month and your written statement does not give a notice period, you do not have to give any notice. If you do not give enough notice and your employer does not agree an alternative, Acas says you are likely to be breaching your contract, and GOV.UK says your employer could take you to court. Acas says some contracts allow your employer to make a deduction from your wages if they have to pay for a quick agency replacement.

Acas says you may be able to leave without working all your notice if your employer has seriously breached your contract, or if you and your employer agree an alternative arrangement. If you resign because your employer has seriously breached your contract, Acas says you might consider a claim of constructive dismissal.

Contractual notice periods might be in your employment contract, your written statement of employment particulars or a staff policy.

• Your contract notice period applies if it is longer than the statutory minimum.
• If your contract gives less than the statutory minimum, your employer must still give you at least the statutory minimum.
• You and your employer can agree a shorter notice period if it works for both of you, and Acas says to put the agreement in writing, for example in an email.
• You usually get your normal pay rate during your notice period.
• You are entitled to bonuses and commission during your notice period unless your contract states otherwise.

A clause in your contract might allow your employer to pay you instead of you working your notice. This is called payment in lieu of notice, or PILON.

• If your contract has a PILON clause, your employer might be able to insist on it, depending on the wording of the clause.
• If you do not agree to PILON, you can work out your notice period.
• When PILON is paid, you stop working straight away.
• Your employer must give you full pay for your notice period.
• In a redundancy, GOV.UK says you get all of the basic pay you would have received during the notice period, and you may get extras such as pension contributions or private health care insurance if they are in your contract.
• If you have taken a smaller proportion of your leave than the proportion of the leave year that has passed when your employment ends, your employer must make you a payment in lieu of leave.

• If PILON is not in your contract, your employer can ask you to agree to it but cannot force you to.
• Since 6 April 2018, HMRC says post-employment notice pay, which represents PILON not otherwise taxed as earnings, is chargeable to income tax as general earnings and does not benefit from the £30,000 threshold.
• HMRC's guidance for employers says to include a payment in lieu of notice in gross pay for both PAYE and National Insurance contributions.
• An employer must work out post-employment notice pay with the HMRC formula whether or not you receive a contractual or non-contractual PILON.

Your employer can dismiss you without notice for gross misconduct, which Acas describes as something very serious or with very serious effects.

• You leave immediately and have no notice period
• You do not get paid notice pay

• Your employer must still pay you for work you have not been paid for, holiday you have built up but not used, and expenses you are owed
• Your employer should always investigate the circumstances before dismissing you, even in possible gross misconduct cases, and Acas says they should follow a fair procedure

GOV.UK says there are some situations where you can be dismissed immediately, for example for violence.

If you think your employer has not given you the correct notice, Acas says to raise it with them, and that it is usually best to raise the problem informally first. If you cannot resolve a dispute about notice pay informally, GOV.UK says you can follow your company's grievance procedures, and then you may be able to complain to an employment tribunal for breach of contract. Acas says you might be able to make a claim for wrongful dismissal to an employment tribunal, the county court in England and Wales or the sheriff court in Scotland.

Limits on a tribunal claim for breach of contract:

In England and Wales, a tribunal can accept a claim presented after that time if it was not reasonably practicable to present it in time, within such further period as the tribunal considers reasonable.

In a county court in England and Wales, a claim founded on a simple contract cannot be brought after six years from the date the cause of action accrued.

Garden leave (or gardening leave) is when an employer tells an employee not to work either part or all of their notice period.

• You must be paid as usual during garden leave, including for any work benefits in your contract.
• You are still employed during garden leave, even though you are not working.

See our Garden Leave guide for full details.

When someone is dismissed or made redundant, Acas says an employer must give them at least the statutory notice period.

• As well as statutory redundancy pay, GOV.UK says your employer should either pay you through your notice period or pay you in lieu of notice.
• In a redundancy, your notice pay is based on the average you earned per week over the 12 weeks before your notice period starts.
• Statutory redundancy pay is calculated on your weekly pay (capped at £751/week, 2026/27)

See our Redundancy guide for redundancy pay and consultation, and our guide to the tax on redundancy pay.

• GOV.UK says you may not get your normal pay rate during your notice period if you are off sick, and that the amount depends on what is in your contract.
• The Employment Rights Act 1996 sets a minimum: if you are incapable of work because of sickness or injury during your notice period, your employer must pay you for your normal working hours at no less than your average hourly rate, worked out by dividing a week's pay by your normal working hours.
• Any sick pay or Statutory Sick Pay you are paid for those hours counts towards meeting that minimum.
• This minimum does not apply if the notice your employer must give you under your contract is at least one week more than the statutory minimum.
• The same minimum covers normal working hours when you are ready and willing to work but your employer provides no work, when you take holiday under your terms of employment, and when you are on certain types of leave.

GOV.UK says to call the Acas helpline for advice about handing in your notice and pay rights. See also our sick pay guide, and the stress at work claims guide if stress at work made you ill.