Newly enforced regulations change UK law on the transfer of undertakings, applicable to transfers which take place on or after 31 January 2014.

The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE), which implement the Acquired Rights Directive (ARD) in the UK, protect the employment rights of employees when there is a transfer of a business or a “service provision change” (broadly, an outsourcing situation). In line with the UK government’s on-going commitment to simplify and ease restrictive employment laws for employers, new regulations have recently come into force which amend TUPE with the aim of making transfers easier and fairer.

TUPE is being amended by the Collective Redundancies and Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) (Amendment) Regulations 2014 (the 2014 Regulations). All of the changes took effect from 31 January 2014, except where noted below.