Commenting on the Government’s plans to reduce the 90 day minimum period before large-scale redundancies can take place to 45 days, Ed Stacey, head of employment law at PwC Legal, said:

“These plans are a step in the right direction and will aid the removal of red tape for businesses, which they have so desperately been calling for. It will allow businesses to take and implement structuring decisions far quicker and reduce costs.

“This is actually a positive move for employees. A shorter consultation period will end lengthy periods of uncertainty for employees and could help them get new jobs quicker. The Government is not proposing to change the process, just shorten it. In many cases employers are already completing consultations in this shorter timeframe and there is no evidence that this leads to either a drop in the quality of the consultation or different decisions being made."