Notice given by an employer follows different rhythms depending on why the job is ending. Failing probation, being dismissed for conduct and being made redundant produce three quite different processes, but they share one thing: the statutory minimum notice in section 86 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 applies to all of them unless something very specific takes it away.
Probation has no special legal status
This is the single biggest misconception in the area. There is no such thing as a statutory probation period in UK employment law. A probation period is a contractual arrangement, nothing more, and calling it probation does not suspend anyone's rights.
What that means in practice:
- For the first month of employment, no statutory notice is required either way. Section 86 only bites once you have one month or more of continuous service.
- From one month onwards, the statutory minimum applies in full. One week from the employer, one week from the employee.
- A contract clause saying you can be let go without notice during a six month probation is unenforceable from the one month point. The statutory week applies regardless.
- A clause giving one week during probation is fine, because it matches the statutory floor rather than undercutting it.
Extending probation is also purely contractual. It can be a sensible thing for an employer to do, and it changes nothing about the notice you are owed, which continues to be governed by your length of service and by whatever your contract provides for the post-probation position.
What actually changes with length of service
What people are usually reaching for when they talk about probation is the qualifying period for ordinary unfair dismissal, which sits at two years' continuous service on the current GOV.UK guidance. That period has been the subject of reform proposals, so check the position on GOV.UK or with ACAS rather than relying on a figure you read a while ago.
Two points matter whatever the qualifying period turns out to be. Certain dismissals are automatically unfair from day one, including those connected to pregnancy and maternity, whistleblowing, trade union membership and asserting a statutory right. And discrimination claims under the Equality Act 2010 require no qualifying service at all. Nobody is unprotected in their first week, whatever a probation clause implies.
Dismissal for Conduct
Ordinary conduct or capability dismissals attract full notice: the statutory minimum for your service or your contractual period, whichever is longer.
Summary dismissal, meaning dismissal without notice, is reserved for gross misconduct. That is conduct serious enough to destroy the employment relationship, and the classic examples are theft, violence, serious dishonesty and gross negligence. GOV.UK gives violence as an example of a situation where someone can be dismissed immediately.
The bar is genuinely high, and this is where employers get into trouble. If the conduct was not gross misconduct, dismissing without notice is a wrongful dismissal and the notice pay is recoverable. A fair process still has to be followed as well, and the ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures is the yardstick a tribunal applies.
Redundancy
Redundancy notice is the same statutory table as any other employer notice: one week between one month and two years, then a week for each complete year, capped at twelve weeks after twelve years. GOV.UK confirms an employer can give more than that but never less.
Two things run alongside it. The first is consultation. Where twenty or more redundancies are proposed at one establishment, collective consultation applies, and GOV.UK sets the minimum periods before any dismissal takes effect.
| Number of proposed redundancies | Minimum consultation before the first dismissal takes effect |
|---|---|
| Fewer than 20 | No fixed statutory period, but individual consultation is still expected |
| 20 to 99 | 30 days |
| 100 or more | 45 days |
Consultation is not the same as notice, and one does not replace the other. Notice normally begins once the decision is made and communicated, at the end of the consultation process rather than at its start.
The second is redundancy pay, which is separate from notice pay and is worked out from age, weekly pay and complete years of service, capped at 20 years.
| Age during each complete year of service | Statutory redundancy pay for that year |
|---|---|
| Under 22 | Half a week's pay |
| 22 to 40 | One week's pay |
| 41 and over | One and a half weeks' pay |
For redundancies on or after 6 April 2026, a week's pay is capped at £751 and the maximum statutory redundancy payment is £22,530.
A worked example
Someone aged 45 with eleven complete years' service, earning £900 a week, made redundant in June 2026. They were 34 when they started, so four of those years fall after their 41st birthday and seven fall before it.
- Seven years at one week's pay: 7 weeks.
- Four years at one and a half weeks' pay: 6 weeks.
- Total: 13 weeks' pay.
- A week's pay is capped at £751, not their actual £900.
- 13 × £751 = £9,763 of statutory redundancy pay.
On top of that they are owed eleven weeks' statutory notice, paid at their actual salary rather than the capped figure, plus accrued holiday. The redundancy payment itself falls within the £30,000 exemption, while the notice pay and holiday pay are taxed as earnings, which our article on payment in lieu of notice sets out in full.
Leaving early, and time off to look
Employees under redundancy notice with two years' service have a right to reasonable paid time off to look for work or arrange training, and GOV.UK says so plainly. Use it.
If you find a new job and want to go before your redundancy notice expires, ask in writing rather than simply resigning. Leaving early without agreement can put your statutory redundancy payment at risk, and the employer has a formal route to object. It is a five minute conversation that protects a five figure sum, and ACAS on 0300 123 1100 will talk you through it for nothing.
Whichever route your job is ending by, fix the dates first. The notice period calculator gives you the leaving date from your start date and contract, and our guide to statutory and contractual notice explains which of the two you should be counting from.
This is general information about the law in England, Wales and Scotland, not legal advice, and Northern Ireland has its own statutory framework. Anything involving a dismissal you think was unfair has a strict time limit, so take advice early rather than after the event.