Hybrid / Remote Working Policy Template (UK)

A hybrid / remote working policy is the written rulebook for staff who split their week between home and the workplace, or work remotely full time. Our free hybrid working policy template for UK employers does two jobs: the practical rules — days, core hours, equipment, expenses — and the legal ones: statutory flexible working requests and health and safety duties to homeworkers.

The legal work is real. In Great Britain an employee can make a statutory flexible working request from their first day in a job, the employer has a fixed window to decide it, and an agreed request changes the employment contract itself. The right belongs to employees — people with employee status — so a policy that offers the statutory route to contractors or agency staff is promising something the statute does not give them. Where the engagement runs off-payroll, the separate determination process is set out on our IR35 status determination statement page. Without a written policy, deadlines get missed and informal habits harden into contractual terms.

The two-month decision clock

In Great Britain the final decision on a statutory flexible working request, including any appeal, is due within two months of the request unless a longer period is agreed with the employee. The clock starts when the request is made, not when HR notices. And the deadline covers the whole process — an appeal heard in month three is too late.

Why the policy needs writing down

Staff already work from home, but nothing is written down and nobody can say what was agreed.
Your first statutory flexible working request has arrived — and the two-month clock above is already running.
You want people back in the office and need to know which arrangements are contractual before changing anything.
You are hiring remote-first staff and the employment contract needs a policy to point to.

What a hybrid working policy should cover

The Great Britain scheme has fixed parameters, and the policy needs to state them correctly:

Scope and definitions — hybrid, fully remote and occasional homeworking carry different consequences; say which the policy governs.
Informal and statutory routes — explain the statutory one: a written, dated request stating it is a statutory request, the change wanted, the start date and any previous application. GOV.UK's guidance is that the employee emails or writes to the employer. A valid request starts the legal clock.
Eligibility and frequency — the right applies from the first day of employment, with two applications allowed in any 12-month period. A policy still demanding six months' service is out of date in Great Britain.
Consultation before refusal — unless the request is agreed in full, the employer must discuss it with the employee before making the decision.
Grounds for refusal — GOV.UK sets out eight business reasons, and a refusal has to rest on one of them. In short: extra costs that would damage the business; the work cannot be reorganised among other staff; nobody can be recruited to do it; an effect on quality; an effect on performance; an inability to meet customer demand; not enough work during the hours proposed; and planned changes to the workforce. Commit the policy to refusing only on those grounds, and record which one applied. A refusal the employee believes was mishandled tends to come back as a formal complaint — the procedure for handling one is set out in our grievance policy template.
A change is coming, but it is not law yet — Acas says the Employment Rights Act 2025 will require an employer who refuses to name its reason from that same list of eight and to explain why it considers the refusal reasonable. That requirement is not yet in force, and no commencement date has been confirmed, so it governs no decision taken today. Writing the reasoning down now costs nothing and saves a redraft later.
Contract status — agreeing a request usually changes the contract's terms, and Acas says changed terms must be put in writing within one month of being agreed. An agreed arrangement can be altered again later only if employer and employee both agree, so if you want to test a pattern, agree an express trial period at the outset rather than assuming you can withdraw it.
Health and safety at home — the clause most policies omit. HSE says an employer has "the same health and safety responsibilities" for people working at home as for any other worker, so the risk assessment must reach the home workstation: display screen equipment, the working environment, and stress and poor mental health. HSE also gives working at home as an example of lone working, which brings its own assessment.
Equipment, expenses and insurance — who supplies kit, what is reimbursed, what comes back when someone leaves.
Data protection and confidentiality — screens, storage, printing and household members; see our guide to data protection rights.

Our free disciplinary policy template covers the process for handling conduct issues.

Common mistakes

Treating an agreed request as a revocable perk — once it is agreed the contract has changed, and the employer cannot simply switch it back; changing it again needs agreement on both sides.
Refusing by email without a conversation, or for a reason not on the statutory list.
Skipping the homeworking risk assessment — the gap an insurer or inspector finds first.
Rolling one policy out UK-wide; Northern Ireland is materially different — see below.

England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

The statutory request scheme above applies across Great Britain — the Acas guidance it follows covers England, Scotland and Wales — so Scotland matches England and Wales on the day-one right, the two-request limit and the two-month deadline. One policy works for all three.

Northern Ireland runs its own scheme and the differences are not cosmetic. Official NI guidance (nidirect) states an employee must have worked for the employer for 26 weeks continuously before applying, and must not have made another application under the right in the past 12 months — so no day-one right, and one request a year rather than two. Northern Ireland also uses a different decision procedure with its own timetable, so do not copy the two-month figure across. Reform has been proposed for Northern Ireland but has not been enacted, so the 26-week rule is the position now. If you employ people there, adapt the policy and check guidance from the Labour Relations Agency, NI's equivalent of Acas.

Frequently asked questions

Is hybrid working a legal right in the UK?

No. It is a right to request from the first day of a job, not a right to be granted. The employer must follow a fair process and can refuse only on the listed business grounds.

How many flexible working requests can an employee make?

In Great Britain, two statutory applications in any 12-month period. In Northern Ireland, under its separate rules, the limit is one request in 12 months.

How long does an employer have to decide a flexible working request?

Two months from the request, including any appeal, unless the employer and employee agree a longer period.

Can an employer refuse a hybrid working request?

Yes — after discussing it with the employee, and only for a listed business reason such as extra costs damaging the business or effects on quality, performance or customer demand.

Does an agreed flexible working request change the employment contract?

Usually, yes. The contract's terms change and must be put in writing within one month. Reversing the arrangement later needs both parties' agreement, so agree any trial period expressly at the start.

Is my employer responsible for health and safety when I work from home?

Yes. HSE says an employer's health and safety duties apply equally to staff working at home — including workstation risks, display screen equipment, lone working and stress.

Statutory references on this page were checked against primary sources (legislation.gov.uk, GOV.UK, HSE, ICO and Acas) on 8 August 2026. Our templates themselves are not solicitor-drafted — see the note below.

This page is legal information, not legal advice.

Dogetlawyer is a Legal-Technology platform, not a law firm.

Our templates are not solicitor-drafted and have not been checked against primary sources. They are starting points to adapt, not finished documents.

This page describes the law of England and Wales unless it says otherwise. For anything significant, consider taking advice from a qualified professional.

The rules described here were checked against GOV.UK, Acas, HSE and nidirect guidance — a statement about this page, not about the template file — and employment law is changing, so a contested request or staff in Northern Ireland need particular care.

How to get this template

This policy sits in the Employment & HR section of our library of around 114 free UK legal templates. Browse every title on the free UK legal contract templates A–Z index without signing in; downloading needs a free account — registration, not payment.