Every organisation, at some point or another, must deal with disciplinary and grievance procedures — it’s an unavoidable fact. Dealing with employer and employee concerns in a constructive way is essential to the smooth running of the business and for years employers have relied on the Acas Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures to provide guidance on how to navigate these. Now, for the first time since 2009, this code is being significantly revised. We look at these revisions and what they mean for the future of disciplinary and grievance procedures.
Background
The Acas Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures provides practical guidance and sets out the principles for handling disciplinary and grievance matters in the workplace.
The importance of the code is significant. While failure to follow its recommendations will not, on its own, make an employer liable to legal proceedings, employment tribunals must take the code into account when considering relevant cases. A failure to adhere to the code's recommendations may not only render a dismissal unfair but may also result in an increase in the amount of compensation awarded to an employee. This is because the Employment Act 2008 allows employment tribunals to uplift or decrease an unfairly dismissed employee's compensation by up to 25% because of any unreasonable failure on the part of the employer or employee respectively to comply with any provision of the code.
The 2026 draft Acas Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures
The draft revised code was published in July 2026. It is the subject of a public consultation, which remains open until 23 September 2026. It proposes significant revisions aimed at encouraging early and informal resolution of workplace issues. The main theme of the new additions in the code, for both discipline and grievance, is adding in further expectations around informal action before moving to formal action. This carries a significant weight; when something is in the code, there is a strong expectation that it is done. If it is not, it can impact on the fairness of the dismissal and the amount of award given.
The proposed changes to the code reflect a broader trend towards early intervention, transparency and fairness in managing workplace disputes. By encouraging informal resolution and equipping managers with the tools and training needed to address concerns constructively, the draft code aims to reduce the financial and emotional costs associated with formal disciplinary and grievance processes.
The importance of this shift is highlighted in statistics from research carried out by Acas, which found that formal disciplinary procedures currently cost UK employers £2.36 billion annually. Informal procedures, in contrast, cost £250 million (10 times less). There is therefore a strong financial motivation to move towards informal methods for dealing with concerns before they escalate.
Early Resolution
The draft revised code encourages employers to address issues at the earliest stage possible and to use mediation. For example, the proposed revisions recommend that employers explain the nature of a concern, listen to the employee and discuss potential resolutions informally. While confirming the outcome of an informal approach in writing is suggested as good practice, it is not mandatory under the proposed code, so it is not relevant to the uplift. What is, however, is that attempts are made to deal with the concern informally first and failure to do so could impact a tribunal’s decision on reduction or uplift of compensation.
