Draft Trade Unions (Permissible Means of Voting) and Employment Rights (Unfair Dismissal) (Amendment) Order 2026

Parliament voted on 15 July 2026 to approve the Draft Trade Unions (Permissible Means of Voting) and Employment Rights (Unfair Dismissal) (Amendment) Order 2026. The motion passed by 330 votes to 109. The order was considered in committee and approved on a division. The order makes two changes. It allows statutory trade union ballots, which were previously required to be conducted solely by post, to be held electronically, in hybrid form, or in the workplace. It also corrects a minor drafting error in section 105 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 arising from changes made by the Employment Rights Act 2025. In practical terms, trade unions organising industrial action or other statutory votes will now have a wider range of methods available to them, which the Government argues will reduce cost and administrative burden and bring trade union democracy into line with practices already used by political parties and listed companies. Labour MPs, including those sitting under the Labour and Co-operative label, voted unanimously in favour. Conservative MPs voted unanimously against, joined by Reform UK and the Democratic Unionist Party. Plaid Cymru, the Greens, the Scottish National Party, and smaller groupings backed the order. The vote followed a similar pattern to related employment rights divisions held on 1 July 2026, and was taken alongside a companion vote approving a new code of practice on electronic and workplace balloting, which passed by the same margin.