Trade Union Right of Access from 30 October 2026: What HR Must Do When a Request Arrives

Key Takeaways

• From 30 October 2026, an independent union can formally request access to any employer with 21 or more workers. Section 59 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 is commenced on that date by SI 2026/1065, and the detailed rules in the Trade Unions (Right to Access Workplaces) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/1101, made 15 October 2026) take effect the same day. Access can be physical entry, digital communication or both.
• You are exempt only if both your headcount today and your 13-week average are below 21. Regulation 7 of SI 2026/1101 looks at the day the request arrives and the 13 weeks ending that day, and associated employers count towards both figures. An employer with 18 workers today and a 13-week average of 23 is in scope, despite HMRC's one-line summary. Count workers, not just employees: casual and zero-hours staff are included.
• You have 15 working days to respond, counted from the day the request is delivered. That is not the day it reaches HR. A request is validly delivered by post to your registered office, head office or principal place of business, or by email to an address you gave the union (or, if you gave none, one you have published). Name the person who receives requests before 30 October 2026.
• If you miss the 15-day deadline, the union can apply straight to the Central Arbitration Committee. You lose the 25-working-day negotiation stage, and the CAC decides whether access takes place and on what terms, working from the union's proposal. The union has until the end of the 55th working day after its request to apply, or the 70th where the CAC accepts an earlier application was not reasonably practicable.
• Your response can disagree, but it must say exactly what you reject and why. Regulation 4 of SI 2026/756 lists the required contents. Every response names a negotiator and says whether you agree in whole or part. Where you agree, you add site contacts, worker categories and numbers and suitable times. Where you disagree, you give your reasons.
• Expect weekly access, two working days' notice of each visit and five before the first. The CAC must accept those terms as reasonable, together with use of your existing facilities, private communications between workers and officials, and the union following your reasonable instructions (regs 17 to 24). An agreement lasts no more than two years unless both sides agree to extend it, and offering digital access is no reason to refuse physical access, or the other way round.
• The union gets no staff contact details without each worker's consent. Section 70ZL of the 1992 Act means nothing in the access regime can require or authorise disclosing personal data without consent, so digital access usually means you pass the union's messages on through your own channels, as a stand-alone communication.
• Repeated breaches of an access agreement can cost up to £75,000, then £150,000, then £500,000 per order. A fine is possible only after a first complaint has been upheld and there is a further breach within 12 months, or a breach of the CAC's order at any time, but each missed visit can be a separate complaint and there is no cap on the number of £500,000 orders (reg 25).
• Access during a statutory recognition application is a separate regime with a tighter timetable. For applications the CAC receives from 30 October 2026, access must be agreed within 20 working days of acceptance, the bargaining unit is frozen at the day the application is received, and you must give the CAC each worker's name, date of birth and category within 5 working days.
• WPC HR's HR compliance software keeps the records this process runs on. Our HR compliance software holds the dated headcount history behind the 13-week average, a log of every access request and its working-day deadlines, and the evidence you would put before the CAC.

Introduction

From 30 October 2026, an independent trade union can send any employer with 21 or more workers a formal request to meet staff at the workplace, to communicate with them digitally, or both. The employer has 15 working days to answer. If the two sides cannot agree terms, the Central Arbitration Committee (CAC) can decide that access takes place and on what terms, and repeated breaches of the resulting agreement can lead to fines of up to £500,000 a time.

This guide answers two questions in the order HR teams will meet them. First, does the right apply to you? The answer turns on a two-part headcount test that most summaries, including HMRC's October 2026 employer bulletin, cut down to a single line. Second, if a request lands, what must you do and by when? We set out the working-day deadlines, what a valid request and response must contain, what an access agreement will look like, when the CAC must or may refuse access, and how it enforces an agreement.

Everything in the main body is confirmed law. The detailed rules are in the Trade Unions (Right to Access Workplaces) Regulations 2026, made on 15 October 2026, and the Required Information Regulations (SI 2026/756), made on 6 July 2026. Both come into force on 30 October 2026, as does the statutory code of practice. Many commentaries were written while these instruments were still drafts, so where you have read something different, check its date. The one related document that was still awaiting approval when we checked on 21 October 2026 is the revised code on access during recognition ballots, and we say so where it matters.

The general right of access is not the same thing as access during a statutory recognition application, which runs to its own timetable under Schedule A1 to the 1992 Act. We keep the two apart and give the recognition regime a section of its own. For the other Employment Rights Act 2025 changes that take effect on 30 October 2026, see our Employment Rights Act timeline.

Where the Law Stands on 21 October 2026

The right itself is in section 59 of the Employment Rights Act 2025, which inserts a new Chapter 5ZA (sections 70ZA to 70ZN) into the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992. The Commencement No. 6 Regulations (SI 2026/1065), made on 1 October 2026, bring it into force on 30 October 2026. The detail is spread across several instruments. We checked each one on legislation.gov.uk on 21 October 2026.

Official summaries have not caught up. HMRC's October 2026 employer bulletin, published on 21 October 2026, still describes the Acas time off code and the industrial action detriment rules as subject to parliamentary approval, and the government's business guidance says the same of the access code. All three have since been approved and their commencing instruments made. The Protection Against Detriment (Industrial Action) Regulations 2026 (SI 2026/1099), made on 15 October 2026, also take effect on 30 October 2026, as does the strengthened sexual harassment duty.

Does the Right of Access Apply to You? The 21-Worker Test

The CAC must refuse access if the employer is small enough. Regulation 7 of SI 2026/1101 sets the test, and it has two limbs. You are outside the right only if both of these are true:

• you employ fewer than 21 workers on the day you receive the access request, and
• you employed an average of fewer than 21 workers in the 13 weeks ending with that day.

Associated employers count towards both figures. HMRC's bulletin says employers that employ "fewer than 21 workers across all of their workplaces" are exempt. That drops the 13-week average and the group rule. Fail either limb and the right applies.

How the 13-Week Average Is Worked Out

Regulation 7(2) prescribes the arithmetic. Take the number of workers employed in each of the 13 weeks, counting anyone employed for only part of a week, add the 13 figures together and divide by 13. Because both limbs must be under 21, the test works differently in each direction. A business that grows past 20 is in scope from the first day its headcount reaches 21. A business that shrinks below 21 stays in scope until its 13-week average also falls below 21, which after a seasonal peak can take weeks.

The count runs backwards from the day the request is received, so you cannot work it out once and file it. You need a weekly headcount record, held now, that will produce the figure for whatever day a request arrives.

Who Counts as a Worker

"Worker" has its meaning under section 296 of the 1992 Act: anyone working under a contract of employment, plus anyone who has agreed to do or perform work personally for another party who is not their professional client. That takes in casual, bank, zero-hours and many freelance staff, not only employees on the payroll. Genuinely self-employed contractors running their own business, for whom you are a client, are not counted.

Associated Employers, Overseas Companies, Ships and Agency Workers

Associated employers. Under section 297 of the 1992 Act, two employers are associated if one is a company controlled (directly or indirectly) by the other, or if both are companies controlled by the same third person. That third person can be an individual, so two companies owned by the same person count together. The code of practice gives the obvious example: an employer of fewer than 21 that sits within a wider company employing 21 or more is in scope, and a union can ask for access to a group of fewer than 21 workers if their employer has 21 or more.

Overseas companies. Workers employed by an associated company incorporated outside Great Britain are ignored, unless they ordinarily worked in Great Britain on the day of the request (for the daily count) or during any part of the week in question (for the average). Regulations 7(3) and 7(4) make this rule.

Ships. For the overseas rule only, a worker on a ship on the UK register is treated as ordinarily working in Great Britain unless the ship's home port is outside Great Britain, the employment is wholly outside Great Britain, or the worker is not ordinarily resident here (reg 7(5)).

Agency workers. An agency worker whose contract with the temporary work agency is not a contract of employment is treated, for the count, as employed by the agency for the length of the assignment (regs 7(6) and 7(7)). On that wording, agency workers count towards the agency's headcount rather than the hirer's. The code of practice does not discuss the point, so if agency staff decide which side of 21 you fall, take advice before you rely on it.

Worked Examples

What Exemption Does and Does Not Do

Exemption is a ground on which the CAC must refuse an application. It does not stop a union sending you a request, and nothing in the rules lets you ignore one. Reply within the 15 working days, say that regulation 7 applies and set out the two figures. If you say nothing, the union can go to the CAC and you will be proving your headcount there instead.

Two further limits are worth knowing. The 21-worker threshold applies only to the statutory process, so access you agree voluntarily outside it is unaffected, and the code encourages existing voluntary arrangements to continue. And the regulations extend to England, Wales and Scotland only, so the right does not reach workplaces in Northern Ireland.

What a Valid Access Request Looks Like

Who Can Send One

Only a qualifying trade union, meaning one with a certificate of independence (section 70ZA(3)), and the request must enclose a copy of that certificate. Two or more unions can make a joint request. The union does not need any members at your workplace. The access purposes are to meet, support, represent, recruit or organise workers, whether or not they are union members, and to facilitate collective bargaining. They expressly exclude organising industrial action (section 70ZA(6) and (7)).

What the Request Must Contain

Regulation 3 of SI 2026/756 requires the request to be in writing, dated, and to contain:

• the name and contact details of the official giving the request, and of at least one official authorised to negotiate
• a statement that the request is made under section 70ZB(1) of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992
• the access purposes, and a general description of the workers concerned, so far as the union knows
• whether access is sought on one or more occasions, whether it is physical, digital or both, a description of it and the reasons for it
• for physical entry, a description of each workplace sufficient for you to identify it
• any assistance asked of you, and the frequency and duration of each occasion of access
• the official who would be responsible for the access, and the notice the union intends to give before each occasion
• for a repeat request, the date of the earlier request and a copy of any terms already agreed (your response to a repeat request accepting those terms can be shorter, under reg 4(4) and (5))

The code of practice includes a template that follows this list, although a union does not have to use it. The code also says that minor clerical or administrative errors should not be treated as a reason to reject a request, and that the two sides should correct them together. A request can cover several of your premises at once.

Where It Can Be Delivered, and When the Clock Starts

A request is validly given if it is sent by post or delivered in person to your registered office, head office or principal place of business, or emailed to an address you have given the union. Where you have given no address, it can go to any email address you make publicly available for communications with you. The code says the 15 working days run from the day the request is given, not from when it is passed to the right person or team.

That creates two practical risks. If your registered office is your accountant's or a company formation agent's address, a letter can sit there for days. And a request emailed to a general enquiries inbox can be missed altogether. The code says employers should make every effort to give unions an email address, and encourages them to publish contact details on their website. Do that before 30 October 2026, and make sure post to your registered office is opened and forwarded the same day.

The Deadlines: 15, 25 and 55 Working Days

A working day is any day other than a Saturday, Sunday, Christmas Day, Good Friday or a bank holiday (reg 2). Bank holidays differ between England and Wales and Scotland, so the same request can produce different end dates. Each period ends at the end of its last working day. The example below assumes a request given on Monday 2 November 2026 to an employer in England.

The negotiation period runs from your response, but the CAC deadline runs from the request, so the two clocks do not move together. If talks are going well when the 25 working days run out, the code says there is no need to apply to the CAC. You can keep talking and, once terms are agreed, the union sends them back as a repeat request, which restarts the statutory timetable. The code also allows the two sides to agree a longer response period, provided they agree its length. Put any such agreement in writing.

What a Missed Response Means in Practice

Suppose the request above reaches your registered office on 2 November 2026, your accountant forwards it on 20 November, and HR has one working day left. If no response notice goes out by the end of 23 November, section 70ZE(1)(a) lets the union apply to the CAC at once. Several things follow:

• You lose the negotiation stage. A negotiated statutory agreement requires a response notice within the response period (section 70ZD(1)(b)), so the first forum for your objections becomes the CAC.
• The CAC works from the union's proposal. The code asks the union to give the CAC its original request and its latest proposal, and the CAC decides in line with the access principles, which carry a presumption in favour of access.
• Model terms count against you. Regulations 17 to 24 require the CAC to accept weekly access, the standard notice periods, use of existing facilities, private communications and reasonable instructions as appropriate terms, so a determination is likely to look like the union's request.
• There is no fine for a late response in itself. Fines arise only from breaching an access agreement. The cost of missing the deadline is losing control of the terms.

Missing the deadline does not remove the 21-worker exemption or the other refusal grounds. You can still raise them before the CAC, but you will be doing so on the union's timetable.

Writing the Response Notice

Regulation 4 of SI 2026/756 requires the response notice to be in writing, dated, and sent to the contact details of the official who gave the request. It must contain:

• your name and contact details (or those of a representative), the name and contact details of at least one person authorised to negotiate for you, and a statement that the notice is given under section 70ZB(4) of the 1992 Act
• whether you agree or disagree with the request, in whole or in part
• where you agree, even in part: a named contact responsible for access at each workplace, the categories and approximate numbers of workers covered, confirmation of the address and location of each workplace and the times likely to suit physical access, and whether you can give any assistance
• where you disagree: which part you disagree with and why, and, if you are refusing because another union has already asked for access to substantially the same workers and you are negotiating or have negotiated with it, confirmation of that and details of the other union

The code expects more than the minimum. If you think a term would unreasonably interfere with your business, or would need unreasonable steps from you, say how in the response. Raise any security, safeguarding or health and safety concerns here too, because the code expects them to be on the table from the start. A response that disagrees is perfectly valid. A response that disagrees without reasons simply invites a CAC application.

What an Access Agreement Contains

A statutory access agreement is made in one of two ways. Either you and the union agree terms in writing within the negotiation period and notify the CAC jointly, in a dated notice signed by both sides with a copy of the agreement attached, or the CAC makes a determination and an agreement on its terms is treated as made. Either way, the agreement is not a legally enforceable contract. It can be enforced only through complaints to the CAC (section 70ZK), and the parties can vary or revoke it only by written agreement notified jointly to the CAC (section 70ZG), although the CAC can also vary it on a complaint.

Physical and Digital Access: Offering One Does Not Justify Refusing the Other

Two of the access principles in section 70ZF(2) say that physical entry should not be refused solely because digital communication is permitted, and that digital communication should not be refused solely because physical entry is permitted. The code puts it plainly: digital access is not an alternative or replacement for physical access. A union can ask for either or both.

Digital access can take several forms. You might cascade the union's messages through your usual channels (email, intranet, staff messaging apps), in which case the code says the message should be sent as a stand-alone communication rather than buried in another update, with the union copied in. You might set up an online meeting on your existing platform for a presentation and questions. Unions use their own IT for direct contact and are not given access to your systems. The code also says it is reasonable for the CAC to refuse a request that would need significant structural or IT changes to your premises or systems. Note too that simply cascading an email does not count as an occasion of weekly access unless that is the access the union asked for.

The Terms the CAC Must Treat as Reasonable

Regulations 17 to 24 of SI 2026/1101 prescribe terms that the CAC must regard as reasonable. They are not compulsory, but a union request that follows them is more likely to be granted and, under the code, more likely to go to a single CAC member rather than a three-person panel, which speeds things up.

Staff Contact Details and Personal Data

Section 70ZL of the 1992 Act says nothing in the access regime requires or authorises a disclosure of personal data without the consent of the person concerned, or any disclosure that would breach data protection law. A term that would require one has no effect, and the CAC cannot impose one. "Consent" carries its UK GDPR meaning.

The code spells out what that means in practice. For a union to contact workers directly, without you acting as the go-between, each worker must have consented to you sharing their contact details, or must have contacted the union themselves. Indirect digital access, such as you cascading a union email or posting on the intranet, needs no consent because no personal data passes to the union. Once a worker has given their details to the union, the union can contact them outside the agreement. Never hand over a staff list in response to an access request. Cascade the message instead. The same section also gives no authority for physical entry into anyone's home.

Where and When Access Takes Place

The code expects access at the workplace where the workers actually work, in a meeting room, an adjoining work area or wherever they usually take breaks. Its examples include canteens in food businesses, staff rooms and communal areas in hospitals and care homes, the start of shifts and toolbox talks on construction sites, and depots at the start of shifts in transport. Private homes are outside the right, but the code is clear that the mixed residential and working nature of a care home is not in itself a reason to refuse access to the staff. Care providers should read that alongside our care sector compliance guide.

Access should usually happen in normal working hours, at times that minimise unreasonable interference with the business, and you should not arrange work so that staff cannot attend. The code says workers who attend an access meeting during work time should be paid in full for that time. Unions should be able to reach shift workers, part-time staff, homeworkers and people on leave on a broadly equivalent basis, although you are not expected to pay their travel costs.

Where your staff work on premises you do not control, such as security officers at a client's site or a shop unit in a shopping centre, you are expected to take reasonable steps to secure the cooperation of the owner. The CAC must have regard to whether you have done so (reg 16(d)), and a third party that obstructs access under an agreement can itself be the subject of a complaint. Existing protections against detriment and inducements linked to union activity, in sections 145A, 145B and 146 of the 1992 Act, apply throughout.

When the CAC Must Refuse Access, and When Refusal Is Reasonable

The starting point is a presumption in favour of access. Under section 70ZF(2)(e), access should be refused entirely only where that is reasonable in all the circumstances. SI 2026/1101 then sets out two lists: grounds on which the CAC must refuse, and grounds on which refusal is to be regarded as reasonable.

When it considers an application, the CAC must also have regard to your existing arrangements for visitors, the type of workplace, whether the agreement needs safeguarding provisions, and, where a third party's cooperation is needed, whether you have contacted it and taken reasonable steps to secure that cooperation (reg 16). Put each of these points in your response notice. Raising them early gives the union the chance to address them in negotiation, and shows the CAC you engaged with the request.

Enforcement: Complaints, Orders and Fines of up to £500,000

Enforcement runs through the Central Arbitration Committee in two steps. First, either party can complain that the other has breached the agreement, or that a third party has prevented access, within three months of the matter complained of (section 70ZH). The CAC can vary the agreement, declare the complaint well founded and order steps to put access back on track.

Second, if within 12 months of that declaration the same conduct happens again or the agreement is breached again, or if the CAC's order is breached at any time, a further complaint can be made, again within three months (section 70ZI). On that further complaint the CAC can order a payment. Regulation 25 caps the amount per order in relation to the same agreement:

• up to £75,000 for the first order
• up to £150,000 for the second order
• up to £500,000 for the third and every later order

The code adds two points that raise the real exposure. Each missed occasion of access can be a separate complaint, so obstructing three weekly visits in a row can produce three penalty orders moving up the scale. And breaches at different sites under one agreement are counted together, so an employer with many sites could face penalties above £500,000 in a single week. There is no limit on the number of £500,000 orders.

Under regulation 26, the CAC must have regard to the gravity of the failure, how long it lasted, the reason for it, the number of workers affected, the size and resources of the person concerned, and any previous failures to comply with an access agreement. The code distinguishes deliberate obstruction, which it calls a very serious breach, from negligence or genuine error. Payment orders can be enforced as if made by a court and the CAC can publish them. Appeals on points of law go to the Employment Appeal Tribunal, and a person ordered to pay can also appeal against the payment order itself, which the tribunal can quash or reduce.

Records decide these cases. On a complaint, the CAC can draw an adverse inference if you fail to provide information or documents it reasonably asks for (section 70ZK(5)), so a log showing when notice arrived, who hosted each visit and what was cascaded is your defence. It is the same lesson as in our post on what HR teams must be able to prove: an employer with no paperwork is judged on the other side's account.

Access During a Recognition Application Is a Separate Regime

When a union applies to the CAC for statutory recognition, a different set of access rules applies, under Schedule A1 to the 1992 Act as amended by Schedule 6 to the Employment Rights Act 2025. SI 2026/1065 commences the remaining Schedule 6 changes on 30 October 2026, but regulation 4 keeps the old rules for any recognition application the CAC received before that date. The two regimes can run side by side, and an outstanding statutory recognition request is one of the grounds on which the CAC may refuse a general access application (reg 13).

Five other changes apply to recognition applications received from 30 October 2026:

• The worker list. Within 5 working days of the CAC's notice that it has received the application, you must give the CAC each relevant worker's name, date of birth and category of worker, so far as reasonable. If you then fail to comply with a CAC order to remedy the failure, the CAC may declare the union recognised once the bargaining unit is settled and the application has not been found invalid (Schedule A1 paragraphs 13A and 13B).
• The frozen bargaining unit. Workers who join the bargaining unit after the day the CAC receives the application are disregarded and cannot vote in the ballot. Mass recruitment no longer dilutes the union's support.
• Earlier unfair practice rules. The duty to avoid unfair practices, such as threats, inducements and offers linked to the outcome, applies from the point the CAC accepts the application rather than only once a ballot is called.
• Longer to complain. An unfair practice complaint can be made up to the fifth working day after the ballot closes, and the CAC must decide it within 10 working days. The CAC now asks only whether an unfair practice was used, not whether it changed the result.
• A meeting every five working days. The draft revised recognition code suggests one union meeting of at least 45 minutes for every 5 working days of the access period. Treat that as guidance in waiting until the code is approved.

One discrepancy to clear up. The government's business guidance says the recognition negotiation period is reduced to 15 working days, while HMRC's bulletin and the Act give 20. Both are right. The Act allows 20 working days from acceptance, of which the first 5 are for the union to ask for access, which leaves around 15 for negotiation.

Stronger Time Off and Facilities for Union Representatives

From 30 October 2026, sections 64 and 65 of the Employment Rights Act 2025 strengthen the position of workplace representatives in unions you recognise, and the revised Acas code on time off comes into effect the same day. Union officials and union learning representatives who take time off can ask for reasonable accommodation and other facilities, and can bring a tribunal claim if these are refused. On a claim about time off, it is now for you to show that the amount of time the representative proposed was not reasonable.

Union equality representatives get a statutory right to reasonable paid time off for equality work and training, plus facilities. The union must notify you in writing and the training condition must be met. Under regulation 8 of SI 2026/1065, an existing equality representative who, immediately before 30 October 2026, had carried out the role continuously for six months or more, having been appointed or elected under union rules, is treated as already meeting both conditions. Failures to allow time off that happened before 30 October 2026 are judged under the old rules and the previous code.

What HR Should Have Ready Before 30 October 2026

The right goes live on Friday 30 October 2026. The 15 working days do not wait for you to find a process, so put these in place now:

• A weekly headcount record. Count workers, not just employees, across every associated company, including anyone employed for part of a week, so you can produce both the daily figure and the 13-week average on the day a request lands. Back-fill the 13 weeks from payroll and rotas now.
• A named person, and a deputy, who receive and answer access requests. Tell reception, the post room and whoever handles your registered office mail. Give unions an email address for requests and publish contact details on your website, as the code encourages.
• A response template. Build it around regulation 4 of SI 2026/756 or use the template in the code. Pre-fill your entity details, negotiator and site contacts.
• A request log with working-day deadlines. Record the date and method each request was given, the union and its certificate of independence, day 15, the end of the negotiation period, and days 55 and 70. Keep copies of every request, response and agreement.
• A briefing for line managers and site managers. What a request looks like and that it must be forwarded the same day; no turning officials away at the door once an agreement is in place; no attending meetings uninvited; no questioning staff about what was said; no penalties or inducements linked to attendance; and paying staff who attend in work time.
• Digital access channels, for multi-site and hybrid employers. Map the channels you use to reach staff, decide who cascades union messages and how quickly, switch off read tracking for those messages, and list sites where a landlord or client controls entry.
• Written visitor, safety and safeguarding rules. The CAC looks at your existing visitor arrangements, so have them on paper before anyone asks.

Keep every access agreement on file for one more reason: the government says the statement of trade union rights, which new workers must receive with their written statement of particulars from 1 January 2027 and existing workers by 5 April 2027, will list any union you have a statutory access agreement with, although both dates are announced only, with no regulations yet and detailed guidance expected in November 2026.

How Can WPC HR Help?

WPC HR is the HR-tech arm of WorkPermitCloud Ltd, providing HR compliance software and sponsor licence compliance audits for UK employers, and its software keeps the headcount history, request log and working-day deadlines that HR teams need to answer a trade union access request correctly and on time. Our HR compliance software holds dated worker records, so the 13-week average is a report rather than a scramble through old rotas, and it keeps every request, response and deadline in one log you can put in front of the CAC if a dispute ever reaches it. You can see our pricing for the platform.

If you also hold a sponsor licence, our sponsor licence compliance audit reviews the HR records and processes the Home Office expects you to keep, and it is a sensible moment to check that your access-request process, headcount records and manager briefing are in place too.

Conclusion

The trade union right of access is confirmed law from 30 October 2026, and its detail is now settled in SI 2026/1101, SI 2026/756 and an approved code of practice. For most employers the first question is the headcount test. It has two limbs, the 13-week average catches businesses that think they are too small, and associated companies count. If you are in scope, the second question is speed: 15 working days from the day a request reaches your registered office or a published inbox, whoever opens it.

A well-run process is not hard to build. Know your numbers, name who answers, use a response that covers every required item, and keep a log of everything that follows. The employers who end up with terms they dislike will mostly be the ones who let the response deadline pass and left the CAC to decide.

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