13. Transfers and service provision changes (TUPE)

The Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations 2006 (TUPE) protect employees if their employer changes hands. TUPE applies to business transfers and to changes of service providers, so it applies when services are outsourced (and insourced) as well as when a business is sold – see below. TUPE was originally enacted in 1981 to implement the European Union (EU) Acquired Rights Directive. It was amended in 2006 to include “service provision changes” (SPCs).


TUPE is intended to safeguard the jobs and rights of employees when the identity of their employer changes as a result of a transfer such as a business sale or merger, or the re-tendering of a service contract. It operates automatically so that the new employer automatically takes on transferring employees and must honour their wages and other contract terms.


Government guidance from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS – now renamed the Department for Business and Trade), A guide to the 2006 TUPE Regulations (as amended by the Collective Redundancies and Transfer of Undertaking (Protection of Employment) (Amendment) Regulations 2014), can be downloaded from the GOV.UK website. The guidance is non-statutory, meaning that employment tribunals do not have to follow it. Acas also has guidance on its website for employees and employers.