Respond to Acas consultation: draft Code of Practice on requests for flexible working

Consultation closes: 11:59pm on 17 December 2026

Use this form to respond to our consultation on the draft Code of Practice on requests for flexible working.

Alternatively, you can download the consultation questions and email your response to consultations@acas.org.uk:

• consultation questions – responding as an individual (DOCX, 42KB)
• consultation questions – responding as an employer or organisation (DOCX, 39KB)

If you need to submit your response in another way, email consultations@acas.org.uk

To make your submission as helpful as possible, please:

• read the draft Code and the consultation document in full before responding
• keep your response concise and to the point – we suggest a limit of 500 words for each open text question
• keep your response as plain text only – the online form does not support hyperlinks, tables or images

Section A: reaching a reasonable decision on a request

The draft Code provides guidance on the new requirement that an employer may only reject a request where it is reasonable to do so on the basis of the business reasons referred to.

At paragraph 49, the Code sets out 4 principles for reaching a reasonable decision:

• reaching decisions based on evidence
• adapting to enable the request
• finding solutions together
• transparency and consistency

It also lists examples of the kind of things an employer could do under each principle. An explanation of each principle is set out in the Code along with examples from paragraphs 48 to 59.