The period of warning either party must give before ending an employment contract.
A notice period is the length of time an employer or employee must give before bringing employment to an end. Two separate figures apply to almost every employee: a statutory minimum set by law, and whatever the contract says. The contract governs whenever it is more generous; it cannot reduce the statutory floor.
An employer's minimum notice rises with length of continuous service: at least one week's notice if the employee has been employed between one month and two years, one week's notice for each year if employed between two and twelve years, and twelve weeks' notice at twelve years or more. An employer may give more than the statutory minimum but cannot give less.
The employee's side is not a mirror image, and that asymmetry catches employers out. What an employee must give is governed by their contract, so a long-serving employee is frequently entitled to far more notice than they are required to give. An employer who writes a long mutual notice period into a contract is bound by it in both directions.
| Length of continuous service | Employer's statutory minimum notice |
|---|---|
| 1 month to 2 years | One week |
| 2 to 12 years | One week for each complete year |
| 12 years or more | Twelve weeks |
Most contracts specify longer notice than the statutory floor, commonly one month for junior roles and three to six months for senior ones. Longer notice cuts both ways: it protects handover, and it means a departing senior hire is unavailable to a competitor for months, but it also means an employer who wants someone gone quickly is paying for time it may not want worked.
Two mechanisms handle that. Garden leave keeps the employee employed and paid but away from work and systems for the notice period, preserving confidentiality and restrictive covenants. Payment in lieu of notice (PILON) ends the employment immediately and pays the notice as a lump sum — which requires an express contractual right to do so, or the termination risks being a breach that can undermine the very covenants the employer wanted to rely on.
Notice periods drive far more than a leaving date. Accrued but untaken holiday continues to build during notice and is normally paid on termination. Continuous service keeps running, which can carry an employee past a statutory threshold. Final pay, equipment return, access revocation and handover all key off the same date. Treating notice as a single field on a leaver form, rather than the trigger for a sequence, is how offboarding tasks get missed.
The notice an employee must give is a term of their contract, so leaving early is a breach of it. In practice employers rarely pursue that, and often prefer to agree an earlier release, place the employee on garden leave, or pay in lieu of notice where the contract allows.
Yes. The employment relationship continues throughout notice, so statutory holiday keeps accruing and any accrued untaken balance is normally paid out on termination. Employers can usually require holiday to be taken during notice, subject to the statutory notice-to-take rules.
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