Conservative Party manifesto: What this means for employment law

There are, throughout the manifesto, references to various changes that a Conservative government would make that would have an impact on employment law and education. These are as follows:

“Our plan to cut taxes and protect pensions”

There is a proposal to take 2p off employee National Insurance so that it will be 6% by April 2027.

Cut taxes to support the self-employed by abolishing the main rate of self-employed National Insurance entirely “by the end of the Parliament.”

“Our plan to give younger people the opportunities and skills they need”

Fund 100,000 high-quality apprenticeships for young people, “paid by curbing the number of poor-quality university degrees”.

Require schools to ban the use of mobile phones during the school day. “We will put our guidance on banning mobile phones in the school day on a statutory footing which will require all schools to operate a ban, as the best schools already do. We will provide funding for schools to help them ban mobile phones where they need it.”

“Transform” 16-19 education by introducing the “Advanced British Standard”, enabling young people to receive a broader education and removing the artificial divide between academies and technical learning.

Legislate to create a register of children not in school, along with delivering new legislation which will make it clear that parents have a right to see what their child is being taught in school and schools must share all materials, especially on sensitive matters like relationships and sex education.

There is a commitment to expand strong academy trusts, preserve the rights of independent and grammar schools, and lift the cap on faith schools, allowing them to offer more places to children based on faith and encouraging them to expand. Provide 60,000 more school places and a further 15 new free schools for children with special educational needs.

“Our plan to deliver better health and social care”

The Conservatives plan to complete the implementation of the Cass Review, “protecting young people questioning their gender from ideologically driven care and ensuring that NHS services follow evidence based best practice.”

There are also proposals to amend the NHS Constitution “so that it recognises every patient’s right to request single-sex accommodation and same-sex intimate care. We will not allow the word “woman” to be erased by health services. Words such as “breastfeeding” and “mother” will not be replaced by chestfeeding” and “birthing parent”.

“Our plan to strengthen communities”

Changes to the Equality Act are proposed whereby primary legislation will be introduced to “clarify that the protected characteristic of sex in the Equality Act means biological sex…. We are clear that on fundamental matters of personal identity there should be one approach across the country, so we will also legislate to that an individual can only have one sex in the eyes of the law in the United Kingdom.”

On the increasing number of children who have started questioning their gender, the Conservatives plan to “…pass legislation to ensure schools must follow our guidance for teachers on how best to support gender questioning students in schools and colleges. Parents will have a right to know if their child wants to be treated as the opposite sex and schools will have to involve parents when it comes to decisions about their children.”

“Our plan to control immigration and stop illegal immigration”

The Conservatives plan to attract the “brightest and best” skilled migrants to the UK. Alongside this, there is a plan to “…raise the Skilled Worker threshold and family income requirement with inflation automatically to make sure that they don’t undercut workers…. We will require migrants to undergo a health check in advance of travel and increasing their Immigration Health Surcharge or requiring them to buy health insurance if they are likely to be a burden on the NHS.”

There is also a proposal to increase all visa fees and remove the student discount to the Immigration Health Surcharge to raise more money for public services.

“Using our Brexit freedoms to deliver regulatory reforms”

“We will never introduce Labour’s package of French-style Union rules, which are a threat to jobs, our competitiveness and our economy.”

“We have already repealed or reformed over 2000 EU laws and by July 2026 we will have repealed or reformed over half of the entire stock of EU law we inherited. Only the Conservatives will keep on removing EU laws from our statute book.”

“Cutting government bureaucracy”

The most interesting, and perhaps controversial, proposal here is the Conservatives plan to make Government “more efficient, cut waste and attract the best and brightest by…. halving the amount of taxpayers’ money spent on external consultants. We will introduce controls on all “Equality, Diversity and Inclusion” initiatives and spending.”

There is also a proposal to “limit the impact of industrial action on public services and balance the ability of workers to strike with the rights of the public”, by continuing to implement the Minimum Service Levels legislation. The Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack has said that the Tory manifesto is “a further declaration of war on trade unions and workers’ rights. The Minimum Service Levels legislation seeks to effectively ban firefighters and other workers from going on strike to defend their jobs, wages and employment conditions. It’s outrageous that the Tories are planning to continue to use this highly authoritarian and dictatorial law to attach trade unions if they are re-elected.” ( Read here )

“Increasing pay for working people”

The Conservatives propose to “maintain the National Living Wage in each year of the next Parliament at two-thirds of median earnings. On current forecasts, that would mean it rising to around £13 per hour up from a minimum wage of £5.80 under Labour in 2010.”

“Our plan to support families”

“To help the childcare sector expand, we have committed to increasing the hourly funding rates over the next two years by an estimated £500 million and are helping the sector, including childminders, to hire more staff, create more places and spend less time on paperwork.”

“Our plan to get more people into work and build a fairer welfare system”

The Conservatives plan to “overhaul” the fit note systems, so that the responsibility moves from GPs to other healthcare professionals:  “Overhaul the fit note process so that people are not signed off sick as a default….We will design a new system which moves the responsibility for issuing sick notes away from our hard-pressed GPs towards specialist work and health professionals, and we will test integrating this with the new WorkWell service to provide tailored support to help people stay in or get back to work.”

The assessments to determine capability to work will be “tightened up”…”We will change those assessments, so that those with moderate mental health issues or mobility problems who could potentially engage with the world of work are given tailored support, instead of being written off on benefits.”

There is no intention to change Carer’s Leave to a period of paid leave.

Comment

The Conservatives continue to focus on measures to reduce the impact of strike action, which is seen by some as a “declaration of war on trade unions and workers rights.” It is also worth noting that the High Court has recently granted the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) permission to pursue a judicial review of the government’s decision to impose minimum service levels during strikes. There will be a substantive hearing later this year.

As part of the “Back to Work” plan which was announced by the government in 2023, there was a commitment to explore a reform of the fit note process, therefore, the inclusion of the proposal for a reform of the fit note process was expected. Note that there is a current “call for evidence” on fit note reform, which ends on the 8th July, click here to see note.

We were expecting the manifesto to address the definition of “sex” in the Equality Act and access to single sex spaces. On the 2nd June 2024 in an article in the Times newspaper,  Kemi Badenoch who is the Minister for Women and Equalities, suggested that the Conservatives would amend the Equality Act to define sex as biological sex in order to protect the “privacy and dignity” of women and girls.

The manifesto is silent on the re-introduction of employment tribunal fees, introducing a statutory cap of three months on non-compete clauses in employment and worker contracts and the “development and improvement” of the current whistleblowing regime, all of which have been the subject of recent consultations and reviews and were expected to feature.