Where the regulations apply

The Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004, which came into force on 6 April 2005, apply to businesses (defined as “undertakings”, see below) whose registered office, head office or principal place of business is in Great Britain. To be covered they need to have 50 or more employees in the UK.

The Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2005 perform an equivalent role in undertakings whose registered office, head office or principal place of business is situated in Northern Ireland. The NI regulations are very similar–in large part identical–to the British regulations.

The main difference between the regulations is that the CAC is the principal enforcing body in Britain whereas the Industrial Court is the main enforcing body in Northern Ireland. In this booklet, regulation numbers where given refer to the British regulations.

Employers, defined as “undertakings”, may have a registered office in one part of the UK and the head office or main business in another part. In that case the decision about which of these two sets of regulations applies depends on where the majority of employees are employed to work.