{"id":18304,"date":"2025-11-26T14:08:54","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T14:08:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dlapiper.com\/beaware\/?p=18304"},"modified":"2025-11-26T16:25:58","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T16:25:58","slug":"working-paper-seeks-views-on-options-to-reform-non-competes-in-employment-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dlapiper.com\/beaware\/working-paper-seeks-views-on-options-to-reform-non-competes-in-employment-contracts\/","title":{"rendered":"Working paper seeks views on options to reform non-competes in employment contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The government has issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gov.uk\/government\/publications\/reform-of-non-compete-clauses-in-employment-contracts-working-paper\/working-paper-on-options-for-reform-of-non-compete-clauses-in-employment-contracts\">working paper<\/a> seeking views on options to reform non-compete clauses in employment contracts, with the aim of boosting labour market dynamism, supporting innovation, reducing barriers to recruitment and protecting workers.<\/p>\n<p>The options considered are:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Statutory limit on length<\/strong> (for example, 3 months, possibly varying by company size).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Complete ban<\/strong> on non-compete clauses.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ban below a salary threshold<\/strong> (protecting lower-paid workers).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Combination<\/strong> of salary threshold ban and a statutory time limit for those who earn above the threshold.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>The government is also seeking views on:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Whether restrictions should be limited to non-compete clauses only or should also apply to other restrictive covenants.<\/li>\n<li>How the government can ensure that other restrictive covenants, for example non-dealing clauses, are not used in a way that would have a similar effect as a non-compete clause, if restrictions were limited to non-compete clauses only.<\/li>\n<li>Whether restrictions on non-compete clauses should be limited to employment contracts or whether the government should consider applying them to wider workplace contracts<\/li>\n<li>Whether the threat of high legal costs\u00a0presents an obstacle to bringing claims\u00a0on restrictive covenants, including non-compete clauses.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Extensive research and consultation on the use of non-compete clauses in employment contracts was undertaken by the previous government. On 10 May 2023, the previous government announced that it would introduce a statutory limit on the length of non-compete clauses of 3 months. However, no action was taken.<\/p>\n<p>The working paper closes for responses on 18 February 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Share this article with your LinkedIn network: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/sharing\/share-offsite\/?url=https:\/\/blogs.dlapiper.com\/beaware\/working-paper-seeks-views-on-options-to-reform-non-competes-in-employment-contracts\/\">https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/sharing\/share-offsite\/?url=https:\/\/blogs.dlapiper.com\/beaware\/working-paper-seeks-views-on-options-to-reform-non-competes-in-employment-contracts\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The government has issued a working paper seeking views on options to reform non-compete clauses in employment contracts, with the aim of boosting labour market dynamism, supporting innovation, reducing barriers to recruitment and protecting workers. The options considered are: Statutory limit on length (for example, 3 months, possibly varying by company size). Complete ban on [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[9068,9111,9304],"class_list":["post-18304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-employment","tag-contracts-of-employment","tag-employment-law-reform","tag-non-competes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dlapiper.com\/beaware\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dlapiper.com\/beaware\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dlapiper.com\/beaware\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dlapiper.com\/beaware\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dlapiper.com\/beaware\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dlapiper.com\/beaware\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18304\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dlapiper.com\/beaware\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dlapiper.com\/beaware\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dlapiper.com\/beaware\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}