The government is deciding how to fine employers for holiday pay. You have until 22 September to tell them what you think.

Deadline: 11:59pm on 22nd September 2026.

The government is currently deciding how the Fair Work Agency will investigate employers, how far back it can look, how big the fines will be, and how the whole thing will work in practice from 2027.

They have asked for views from employers, workers, HR professionals and anyone else affected.

Most people haven't heard about this consultation. Most won't respond. And yet the outcome will directly affect how every employer in the UK handles holiday pay for years to come.

You have a voice in this. Here's how to use it.

What is the Fair Work Agency?

The Fair Work Agency launched on 7th April 2026 under the Employment Rights Act 2025. It replaced several separate enforcement bodies and brought them together into one organisation, covering national minimum wage, statutory sick pay, and from 2027, holiday pay.

Until now, if an employee believed they'd been underpaid holiday pay, their only option was an employment tribunal claim. They had to bring it themselves, within a tight time limit, at their own risk.

From 2027, the FWA will be able to investigate employers without waiting for an individual complaint. It can look across your entire workforce, not just one person. It can issue notices, demand repayment and levy financial penalties. It has powers modelled on HMRC's approach to minimum wage enforcement, and anyone who's seen what that looks like in practice knows it's not gentle.

The government is not asking whether this should happen. That's decided. What they're asking is how it should work.

What's actually proposed

Here's what's on the table, in plain terms.

The FWA would investigate statutory holiday pay only, not contractual enhancements above the legal minimum.

It could investigate underpayments going back up to six years, but only for non-compliance from 18th December 2025 onwards, when the Employment Rights Act received Royal Assent.

Financial penalties for non-compliance could reach 200% of arrears, capped at £20,000 per worker. So if you employ twenty people and have a systemic holiday pay error, the arithmetic on that is not comfortable.

The agency would be able to take a "whole employer" approach, meaning one complaint could trigger a review of your entire workforce, not just the person who raised it.

The government's stated approach is "highly supportive, with an emphasis on helping businesses comply, and only taking punitive action where necessary." That sounds reasonable. The consultation is your chance to make sure that promise is built into the design rather than left as an aspiration.

Your six-year holiday pay records, which became a legal requirement from 6th April 2026, are exactly what you'd be producing if the FWA comes knocking. If you haven't got those records in order yet, that's the most urgent thing on your list.

Why you should respond, whoever you are

This is the part most people skip. They assume consultations are for lawyers and trade bodies. They're not. The government explicitly says this consultation will be of particular interest to workers, employers of all sizes, and HR professionals.

Your experience and your voice count. And the ratio of big-employer submissions to small-employer submissions in most consultations is heavily skewed, which means the framework gets designed around the concerns of organisations with HR departments and legal teams, not the ones running ten-person businesses from a back office.

Here's what to say, depending on who you are.

If you're a small employer

Tell them about the reality of holiday pay complexity for small businesses. Tell them that irregular hours workers, term-time staff, and zero-hours contracts create genuine calculation difficulty even for employers who are trying to do it right. Tell them the difference between wilful non-compliance and honest error is enormous, and the enforcement regime should reflect that.

Tell them what support would actually help: a reliable, free calculator (hint: they specifically ask about this), clearer guidance, worked examples they can follow without a lawyer.

Tell them what a proportionate investigation looks like for a business of your size. A whole-workforce review of a 500-person employer is one thing. The same approach applied to a business with eight employees is entirely different in terms of disruption and cost.

If you're an HR professional or consultant

You see the gap between what the law says and what employers actually understand. Say so. Tell them where the guidance is unclear, where the calculations are genuinely ambiguous, and where even well-run organisations get it wrong because the rules are complicated.

Tell them what would help your clients comply before enforcement begins: better HMRC-style tooling, clearer guidance on irregular hours, a workable self-assessment process.

Tell them that the most effective deterrent to holiday pay underpayment isn't the size of the fine, it's making compliance straightforward enough that employers can get it right without needing specialist advice for every calculation.

This consultation asks specifically about what support the FWA could provide. That question was written for you.

If you're a worker or employee

Holiday pay underpayment is genuinely common, often not deliberate, and often not challenged because the tribunal process is too intimidating and too slow.

Tell them whether state enforcement feels like the right solution. Tell them whether you'd trust the FWA to act on your behalf fairly and quickly. Tell them what "accessible" enforcement actually means from where you sit, not from where a government consultation team sits.

Tell them what good support looks like: clear information about your rights, a straightforward way to raise a concern, and confidence that raising it won't damage your employment relationship.

Tell them if the six-year look-back is the right length, too long, or not long enough.

If you're a line manager

You're the person who has to explain to an employee why their holiday pay looks different this month. You're the person who gets asked whether the bank holiday counts. You're the person caught between a payroll process you didn't design and an employee who doesn't think the number is right.

Tell them what information you actually need to manage holiday pay conversations confidently. Tell them where the current guidance fails the people trying to apply it on the ground. Tell them what a helpful FWA looks like from the middle of an organisation, not just from the top.

How to respond

You don't have to answer every question. You don't have to be an expert. You just have to say something true about your experience.

The fastest route is the online survey. It takes about fifteen to twenty minutes and you can answer as many or as few questions as you want.

If you'd rather write a response in your own words you can email it to: holidaypay.enforcement.consultation@businessandtrade.gov.uk

Or write to: Pay Rights Enforcement Team, Employment Rights Directorate, Department for Business and Trade, Old Admiralty Building, Admiralty Place, London, SW1A 2DY.

The deadline is 11:59pm on 22nd September 2026. That's 41 days away. It takes less time than a 1:1 that goes sideways.

What happens after the consultation

The government analyses all responses and publishes its reply before the FWA enforcement powers go live in 2027. The more varied the responses, the more the final framework has to grapple with real-world complexity rather than being shaped only by those with the loudest and most organised voices.

Holiday pay enforcement from 2027 is happening. This consultation is the last formal point where the rules are genuinely up for debate. After this, the framework gets set and employers are left to navigate whatever comes out of it.

If you have a view, now is when it counts.

While you're thinking about this

The record-keeping duty that's already in force since April 2026 is the thing most employers haven't sorted yet. From 6 April 2026, you must keep records of annual leave taken, carried-over leave, holiday pay and the components of each payment, for six years. Failing to keep adequate records is a criminal offence.

And the calculation underneath all of this: if your holiday pay figures aren't right, the records you're keeping are records of the wrong number. That's worse than no records at all.

If you're not confident your calculations are right, especially for part-time, irregular hours or part-year staff, that's where to start.

Last reviewed: August 2026. This article is general guidance, not legal advice. The consultation details above are accurate as of 12th August 2026.