In brief
From 1 December 2025, the HR1 form which employers must use to notify the Secretary of State of their proposal to make collective redundancies must be submitted in digital format.
Key takeaways
Organisations proposing to dismiss as redundant 20 or more employees at one establishment within a 90 day period are required to notify the Secretary of State of the proposal in an HR1 form. Currently, the HR1 form can be downloaded as a Word document and submitted via email or through a digital HR1 form.
From 1 December 2025, the HR1 form can only be submitted digitally. It will not be possible to submit the HR1 form via email.
There are some differences between the Word and digital versions of the HR1 form and potentially additional challenges if the digital system proves to be less flexible:
- The guidance that accompanies the digital form says that it will not accept future consultation start dates. It will only accept consultation dates that have already started or will start on the day of submission of the HR1. There is, however, an option to state that consultation has not yet started so it appears that the HR1 can still be submitted in advance of consultation.
- The digital form does not require the employees to be categorised by occupational group; this had been a requirement of the Word version.
- The digital form includes an additional reason for redundancy: change in supply chain or loss of supply chain contract.
- There is an ability to include up to four attachments and to add clarification but, as the form is submitted digitally, employers may find it more difficult to make adjustments at a later date.
From a practical perspective, the digital form needs to be completed in one go and will time out after 90 minutes of inactivity. The completed form cannot be exported or retrieved after submission therefore we strongly recommend that you save/print as pdf the final summary page before submission. If you do not save/print out the form before submission, you will not have a record in the event of disputes. Further information on the HR1 form can be found in the government’s guidance here.
For further information on how this affects your business, please get in touch with your usual Baker McKenzie contact