From Monday 1st December 2025, the HR1 form finally joins the 21st century. Paper and e-mail submissions will disappear, and employers proposing 20 or more redundancies at one establishment within 90 days must use the Insolvency Service’s new digital system. Failure to notify remains a criminal offence, so this upgrade is more than a tidy bit of administration.
The digital form promises fewer errors, mandatory fields that stop leaders from ‘accidentally’ skipping key details and (mercifully) no more hunting for the latest Microsoft Word version. It also pulls in handy links to public registers, which should reduce the back-and-forth that often delays submissions.
What does this mean in practice?
Build-in time
The usual consultation timetables remain. 30 days before the first dismissal if you propose 20 to 99 redundancies, or 45 days if 100 or more.
Familiarise yourself with the system
When the time comes, run a test submission so the real filing is not a last-minute scramble.
Tidy your data
The form now requires clearer, more structured information about the business, the reasons for redundancies, and affected groups.
Stay up to date
Digitalising sits alongside broader proposed reforms, including future changes to how ‘establishment’ is defined for consultation thresholds. Those are not yet live, but they are coming.
The aim? Reduce errors. Improve consistency. Stop avoidable compliance failures.
Source: Redundancy payments: HR1 form – advance notification of redundancies – GOV.UK
