Who must submit an HR1 form?

An employer that proposes to dismiss 20 or more employees as redundant at one establishment within a period of 90 days or less. An establishment is the site where an employee is assigned to work, and each site is treated separately. With fewer than 20 proposed redundancies you do not need to file.

How long before the redundancies must I file?

At least 30 days before the first dismissal for 20 to 99 redundancies, and at least 45 days before the first dismissal for 100 or more. You must also file before you issue any individual notices of dismissal. The notification date is the date the Redundancy Payments Service receives the completed form.

Can I send the HR1 form on paper or by email?

The Insolvency Service says it no longer accepts the paper form and points employers to the online version. One of its guidance pages still tells employers to return the completed form by email, so use the online form and check the current instructions.

What is a protective award?

It is what an employment tribunal can order if an employer fails to consult properly: the employer pays remuneration for a protected period. For dismissals that take effect on or after 6 April 2026, the protected period cannot exceed 180 days. Earlier dismissals keep the old limit of 90 days.

Are HR1 forms public?

gov.uk says the information about your company is commercially confidential and may be used only to assist those facing redundancy. It goes to government departments and agencies that offer job-finding or training help, which are bound by the same confidentiality terms, and your local Jobcentre Plus may contact you.

HR1 form: telling the government about redundancies

Updated 4 November 2026 Sources UK company guides · How we make money

You must file an HR1 form if you propose to make 20 or more employees redundant at one establishment within 90 days. As of November 2026, you file it online with the Redundancy Payments Service at least 30 days before the first dismissal for 20 to 99 redundancies, and at least 45 days for 100 or more.

Who must file

The duty comes from section 193 of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992: an employer proposing to dismiss 20 or more employees as redundant at one establishment within 90 days or less must notify the Secretary of State. The Redundancy Payments Service (RPS) collects the HR1 form on the Secretary of State’s behalf.

An establishment is the site where an employee is assigned to work. Each site is treated separately, and you complete a form for each site where 20 or more redundancies are proposed. If you consider several sites to be one entity for management, consultation and reporting, one form can cover them, and you list the other sites in an attachment with the number of redundancies at each.

Give your best estimate, or the worst-case figure, if you do not yet know the exact number. If you notify one group of redundancies and later need more, treat them as separate events, and do not add the two groups together. With fewer than 20 redundancies there is no HR1, and gov.uk calls consultation good practice. A tribunal could find that you dismissed staff unfairly if you do not consult.

Insolvency practitioners are still required to submit HR1 forms. Our guides to creditors’ voluntary liquidation and members’ voluntary liquidation explain who runs a closing company’s affairs.

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Deadlines

Proposed redundancies at one establishment	HR1 to the RPS	Minimum consultation before the first dismissal
Fewer than 20	Not required	No set rules, but good practice
20 to 99	At least 30 days before the first dismissal	30 days
100 or more	At least 45 days before the first dismissal	45 days

These periods are as of November 2026. File before you issue any individual notices of dismissal. The notification date is the date the RPS receives your completed form, and section 193 requires the notice to identify the representatives you are consulting and the date consultation began. If it is not reasonably practicable to meet the minimum periods, you must make every effort to do so as far as you can, and give your reasons.

The online form accepts a date that is shorter than the required period but asks why. Failing to comply with the notification requirements without good cause may mean prosecution and a fine on summary conviction for the company or its officers. gov.uk says you can be fined an unlimited amount if you do not notify the RPS. The form does not accept a consultation start date in the future, though it does accept a same-day date.

How to submit the online form

gov.uk tells employers to submit form HR1 online, and the Insolvency Service says it no longer accepts the paper form. One guidance page, updated on 9 December 2025, still tells employers to return the completed form by email, so check the current instructions before you file.

The online form has 8 parts and takes about 40 minutes on average. It does not save anything until you submit it, and if you leave the page for more than 90 minutes you must start again. You will need:

the company number;
the nature of the business, as a standard industrial classification (SIC) code;
the timing and location of the redundancies;
the expected number of redundancies;
the reasons for them;
details of the trade union or employee representatives.

You can upload up to four attachments at the end, for example a list of sites or further detail on the reasons. An email address is compulsory, and if you do not have a generic business one you can use the main contact’s. At the end you confirm that you have given copies of the form to all trade union and elected representatives, and section 193 requires that copy.

Save or print the final summary page as a PDF before you press submit. The confirmation email says only that the form has been received, and there is no way to retrieve a submitted form later. If the RPS rejects a submission, you will need to resubmit it.

Mistakes to avoid

Mistake	What to do instead
Counting redundancies across the whole company	Count per establishment, because each site is treated separately
Waiting for an exact number	Give your best estimate or worst-case figure
Adding two separate groups of redundancies together	Treat each group as its own event
Filing after the first notices go out	File before you issue any individual notice of dismissal, and at least 30 or 45 days before the first dismissal
Not keeping a record of the submission	Save or print the summary page as a PDF, because the confirmation email is only a receipt
Forgetting the representatives	Give a copy to each trade union and elected representative, and confirm it in the declaration

Consultation

Notify the RPS before consultation starts. gov.uk then lists the steps: consult trade union representatives or elected employee representatives, or staff directly if there are none; give them enough information and time; respond to requests for more information; and issue notices only once consultation is complete. Section 188 requires consultation to begin in good time and at least 30 or 45 days before the first dismissal takes effect, depending on the numbers.

You must give written details of the reasons for the redundancies, the numbers and categories of employees involved and in each category, how you will select employees, how you will carry out the redundancies and how you will work out redundancy payments. Consultation does not have to end in agreement, but it must aim for one and cover ways of avoiding or reducing the redundancies.

The protective award

If an employer does not consult as required, an affected employee, representative or trade union can complain to an employment tribunal. If the complaint succeeds, the tribunal may make a protective award, which orders the employer to pay remuneration for a protected period. The tribunal sets the length as just and equitable, having regard to how serious the employer’s default was.

For dismissals that take effect on or after 6 April 2026, the protected period cannot exceed 180 days. The Employment Rights Act 2025 doubled the old limit, and regulation 5 of the commencement regulations keeps the old 90-day limit for dismissals taking effect before that date. Some official pages still quote the 90-day figure.

What may change in 2027

The Employment Rights Act 2025 added a power to set a collective consultation threshold for a whole organisation, and sections 188 and 193 now refer to a “threshold number”. It has effect only for purposes set by regulations, and the number cannot be lower than 20. We found no regulations setting it, and the Department for Business and Trade roadmap, updated on 22 October 2026, lists it under 2027. Until then, the test is 20 or more at one establishment.

Staff records and data licences

A redundancy brings staff records with it, and those records are personal data. The ICO’s employment guidance covers sharing workers’ information in an acquisition, merger, reorganisation or insolvency. It says to consider due diligence, establish a lawful basis for sharing, tell workers, document decisions and, wherever possible, anonymise the information before sharing it with another organisation in connection with a prospective acquisition, merger or reorganisation. The ICO’s advice for small organisations adds that when you no longer need personal data for the reason you collected it, you should destroy it securely or anonymise it.

If the company is closing, its records may be licensable. Decide what happens to staff and HR records before employees leave, and read our guide to closing a limited company for the order of the other steps. Our strike-off guide covers the timing if you plan to strike the company off.

Personal data in the records stays under UK GDPR until nobody is reasonably likely to identify the people it relates to. Removing names is not enough, and anonymising is itself processing that needs a lawful basis. Take advice before any records that hold personal data leave the company, and see our guide to anonymising company data.

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Some company records can be licensed for AI training. Answer four questions to see whether yours might qualify, without sharing any files.

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Next steps

Count the proposed redundancies by site, work out the 30 or 45 day date, and save the HR1 summary page when you submit.

Frequently asked questions

Who must submit an HR1 form?: An employer that proposes to dismiss 20 or more employees as redundant at one establishment within a period of 90 days or less. An establishment is the site where an employee is assigned to work, and each site is treated separately. With fewer than 20 proposed redundancies you do not need to file.
How long before the redundancies must I file?: At least 30 days before the first dismissal for 20 to 99 redundancies, and at least 45 days before the first dismissal for 100 or more. You must also file before you issue any individual notices of dismissal. The notification date is the date the Redundancy Payments Service receives the completed form.
Can I send the HR1 form on paper or by email?: The Insolvency Service says it no longer accepts the paper form and points employers to the online version. One of its guidance pages still tells employers to return the completed form by email, so use the online form and check the current instructions.
What is a protective award?: It is what an employment tribunal can order if an employer fails to consult properly: the employer pays remuneration for a protected period. For dismissals that take effect on or after 6 April 2026, the protected period cannot exceed 180 days. Earlier dismissals keep the old limit of 90 days.
Are HR1 forms public?: gov.uk says the information about your company is commercially confidential and may be used only to assist those facing redundancy. It goes to government departments and agencies that offer job-finding or training help, which are bound by the same confidentiality terms, and your local Jobcentre Plus may contact you.