October 2026 Legal Briefing

This blog provides a brief overview of October’s Legal Updates, which are relevant to Quality, Environmental, Info Sec and Health & Safety to help your organisation stay aligned with the latest legal requirements.  

How to use this Update:

• You should review these updates and decide whether they apply to your company.
• Add all relevant items to your legal register and document your compliance.
• Ensure all policies and procedures align with the new governance and compliance requirements.
• Provide information and training to all relevant personnel to ensure you remain compliant
• Please note that ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 27001 and other standards require you to conduct a compliance evaluation.

The standards and industry information is provided as a guide to help organisations assess relevance. Organisations should review each update in the context of their own activities, locations and legal obligations to determine whether the legislation applies to them.

Where an update is applicable, organisations should consider whether their legal register, policies, procedures, risk assessments, controls, training or other compliance arrangements need to be reviewed or updated.

Need assistance with these updates? We are here to help: Contact us

Webinar Maturity to Momentum: Turning insight into impact
In this webinar, Assent Risk Management and DNV will explore how organisations can use external perspectives, maturity assessments and quality management data to move from measurement to meaningful improvement. Date: 11th November 2026 Time: 11:00am Free to attend
The session will look at how organisations can move beyond simply identifying problems to creating a structured approach to continuous improvement, with insight becoming action and action becoming sustained improvement.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 (Commencement No. 6 and Transitional and Saving Provisions) Regulations 2026
Date	6th October2026
Country	UK
Category	Employment
Standards	ISO 45001, ISO 45003, ISO 30415
Industries/sectors	Employers, HR and people-management teams, organisations reviewing employment practices, worker wellbeing and inclusion.
Status	Active
Summary These Regulations bring into force certain provisions of the Employment Rights Act 2025 (c. 36) (“the 2025 Act”) on 30th October 2026. They are the sixth commencement regulations made under the 2025 Act. Certain provisions came into force on Royal Assent by virtue of section 159 (1) of the 2025 Act and two months after Royal Assent by virtue of section 159 (2) of the 2025 Act.
Legislation:	https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2026/1065/contents/made

The Employment Appeal Tribunal (Amendment) (No. 2) Rules 2026
Date	13th October 2026
Country	UK
Category	Employment
Standards	ISO 45001, ISO 45003, ISO 30415
Industries/sectors	Employers, trade unions, HR and employee-relations teams, organisations involved in employment relations and workplace access arrangements.
Status	Active
Summary This instrument amends the Employment Appeal Tribunal Rules 1993, which govern procedure in the Employment Appeal Tribunal. It makes consequential procedural amendments, so that appeals from determinations, declarations and orders made by the Central Arbitration Committee under the new right of trade unions to access workplaces framework, can be brought and dealt with under the existing Employment Appeal Tribunal Rules. The amendments include inserting references to the new appeal route under section 70ZM(1) and (2) of the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 (“the 1992 Act”), adding references to Central Arbitration Committee “determinations” alongside existing references to decisions, declarations and orders, and updating the relevant appeal form.
Legislation:	https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2026/1077/contents/made

The Global Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Sanctions Regulations 2026
Date	13th October 2026
Country	UK
Category	Sanctions
Standards	ISO 37301, ISO 37001, ISO 31000, ISO 26000
Industries/sectors	Financial services providers, international traders, legal and professional services firms, charities and NGOs, organisations with overseas operations or international supply chains.
Status	Active
Summary This instrument revokes and re-enacts, with expanded purposes and designation criteria, the Global Human Rights Sanctions Regulations 2020 (“the 2020 Regulations”). It consolidates amendments previously made to the 2020 Regulations and provides the Government with new designation powers
Legislation:	https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2026/1071/contents/made

The Income Tax (Pay As You Earn) (Amendment No. 3) Regulations 2026
Date	14th October 2026
Country	UK
Category	Finance
Standards	ISO 9001, ISO 27001, ISO 27701
Industries/sectors	Employers, payroll and HR service providers, accountancy practices, payroll, HR and business software suppliers.
Status	Active
Summary This instrument amends the Income Tax (Pay As You Earn) Regulations 2003 (the PAYE Regulations) so that employers may voluntarily register to report non- mandated benefits in kind using payroll software. It allows employers to report the taxable benefit of employment-related loans and employer-provided living accommodation voluntarily using payroll software from the 2027-28 tax year. It also sets out how employers must calculate the cash equivalent or relevant amount of those benefits for payrolling purposes, including where information needed for the calculation is not known when the calculation is made.
Legislation:	https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2026/1082/contents/made

ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 27001 and other standards require you to conduct a compliance evaluation. If you haven’t done this, we can help.