It is 9.40 pm on a Tuesday. A message arrives from your manager. It is not urgent, and no one has said you must reply tonight. Yet you find yourself replying anyway.
Most of us recognise the scenario. What far fewer people can answer confidently is the legal question beneath it: are you actually entitled to ignore that message? The short answer is that there is no standalone right to do so in England and Wales, and no date in the diary for one. The longer answer is more useful because the absence of a specific right is not the same as the absence of protection.
What was promised, and what became of it
Before the 2024 general election, the government committed to a "right to switch off", drawing on models used in Ireland and Belgium. The intention was to deliver it via a statutory code of practice rather than as a stand-alone legal right.
It never made it into the Employment Rights Bill. In early 2025, press reports indicated the policy had been shelved to reduce compliance costs on business, and the Employment Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent in December 2025 without it. Ministers have since reiterated their commitment to the policy in Parliament. However, no consultation has been launched, no draft code has been published, and the right to switch off does not appear in the government's published implementation timeline, which otherwise maps out reforms through to 2027.
The fair summary, then, is that this remains a stated intention rather than a proposal, let alone a law. Employers planning around it should plan for what exists today.
What a code of practice would, and would not, do
If a code eventually arrives, expect something closer to the ACAS codes than to a ban. Codes of practice of this kind do not usually confer a right to sue in their own right. They set out what good practice looks like, and tribunals can take an employer's compliance, or lack of it, into account when deciding related claims about stress, dismissal or discrimination. The headline "your boss cannot email you after 6 pm" was always a caricature. The realistic outcome is that employers and their staff agree in advance, in writing, on what out-of-hours contact is reasonable in their particular workplace.
The rules that already apply
The Working Time Regulations 1998 are the obvious starting point. They cap average working time at 48 hours a week, calculated over a 17-week reference period, and give workers 11 hours' uninterrupted rest between working days, either 24 hours' rest each week or 48 hours' rest each fortnight. ACAS sets out the detail on working time rules and rest breaks.
Two qualifications matter, yet they are often overlooked. First, an individual can agree in writing to opt out of the 48-hour limit, and many do so. Second, the weekly limit does not apply where working time is "unmeasured", which can cover senior people with genuine autonomy over their hours. That is precisely the group most likely to be working late into the evening.
The rest periods, though, are harder to shrug off. If someone finishes at 6 pm and is answering messages at 10.30 pm, the 11-hour rest period is being eroded, whether or not anyone has framed it as work.
The health and safety duty
Employers have a duty under the Health and Safety at Work etc. Act 1974 to protect the health, safety and welfare of their staff, and this duty extends to mental health. Under regulations made in 1999, employers must assess the risks their work creates, and the HSE is explicit that this includes assessing and acting on the risk of work-related stress. Its Management Standards identify excessive demands and lack of control as two of the six main causes.
The scale of the problem is not speculative. HSE figures for 2024/25 show that 964,000 workers in Great Britain suffering from work-related stress, depression or anxiety, and 22.1 million working days lost to those conditions.
The HSE and local authorities enforce these duties. They do not, in themselves, confer a claim on an employee.
When "always on" turns into a claim
Where an out-of-hours culture creates legal exposure, it usually does so through one of three routes.
Constructive dismissal. If an employer's conduct destroys the relationship of trust and confidence, an employee may resign and claim they were dismissed. Sustained, unreasonable demands on an employee's personal time, particularly after the employee has raised them, can contribute. From 1 January 2027, the qualifying period for unfair dismissal drops from two years to six months, considerably widening the pool of employees able to bring such a claim.
Discrimination. If work-related stress or anxiety becomes long-term and substantial, it may constitute a disability under the Equality Act 2010, triggering a duty to make reasonable adjustments. Depending on the circumstances, limiting out-of-hours contact could be a reasonable adjustment. Separately, a blanket expectation of evening availability can indirectly disadvantage staff with caring responsibilities.
Personal injury. A claim for psychiatric injury is possible but demanding. The employee must show that the injury was reasonably foreseeable and that the employer failed to act. An employer who was told about the pressure and did nothing is in a considerably weaker position than one who was never told.
Elsewhere in the world
France legislated in 2017, requiring larger employers to negotiate arrangements with staff. Belgium followed suit for employers with 20 or more staff. Ireland operates a voluntary code of practice. Australia went furthest, giving employees a statutory right to refuse unreasonable out-of-hours contact, with the right extended to small businesses in August 2025. None of these measures outright ban contact. All of them require the parties to agree on what is reasonable.
Practical steps for employers
You do not need to wait for a code to be published.
Set out, in writing, what your expectations are, and define what counts as a genuine emergency, since the absence of a definition leads people to reply to everything. Train managers, because behaviour cascades far more effectively than policy documents. Where someone is genuinely required to be available, treat it as on-call and pay and roster for it accordingly. Use delayed-send functions rather than relying on "no need to reply tonight" footers, which rarely work. And keep records of hours and rest, particularly for staff who have opted out of the 48-hour limit.
If you are the one being contacted
Raise it early and in writing and keep a note of what is being asked of you and when. Check whether you signed an opt-out from the 48-hour week and remember that you can withdraw it on notice. Most of these situations are resolved by an honest conversation. Where they are not, your previous position and what you did about it will matter a great deal.
Where to go from here
A statutory right to disconnect may yet arrive, but nothing in the current timetable suggests it is imminent. In the meantime, the framework already in place for working time, rest, health and safety, discrimination, and dismissal does more than most people assume. If you are an employer reviewing your policies, or an employee who feels the boundaries have disappeared entirely, it is worth taking advice before matters harden. Contact Tim Lang at tim.lang@mfgsolicitors.com or call 01562 820181 to talk through where you stand.