Employee Handbook (UK)

What's in the UK Employee Handbook pack?

Quick answer. 15 ACAS-aligned policies covering the full UK statutory baseline for employers: Disciplinary & Grievance, Equal Opportunities, Health & Safety, Working Time, Sickness Absence, Whistleblowing, Anti-Bribery, Acceptable Use, Flexible Working, Annual Leave, Data Protection, Bullying & Harassment, Code of Conduct, Bring Your Own Device, and Statement of Employment Particulars. All cited to primary statute (HSWA 1974, ERA 1996, Equality Act 2010, PIDA 1998, ACAS Code), bespoke-generated from structured questions about your business, and re-generatable when the law changes.

A UK employee handbook is the practical document that consolidates an employer's statutory obligations into one place that staff actually read. The constituent policies are individually required — section 2(3) HSWA 1974 requires a written health & safety policy for employers of five or more; section 1 Employment Rights Act 1996 requires a written statement of particulars within two months of employment starting; the ACAS Code on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures sets the tribunal-defensible procedure that section 207A TULRCA 1992 allows tribunals to uplift by 25% if not followed. The handbook is where these obligations live operationally.

The 15 policies inside

• Disciplinary & Grievance Policy — ACAS Code-aligned, tribunal-defensible, TULRCA s.207A cited.
• Equal Opportunities & Anti-Discrimination Policy — Equality Act 2010, all 9 protected characteristics, s.109(4) reasonable-steps defence, EHRC Code.
• Health & Safety Policy — HSWA 1974 s.2(3) written-policy duty, MHSWR 1999 risk-assessment, RIDDOR 2013 reporting.
• Working Time & Rest Breaks Policy — Working Time Regulations 1998, 48-hour opt-out procedure, daily / weekly rest requirements.
• Sickness Absence Policy — SSP procedure (Social Security Contributions and Benefits Act 1992), return-to-work meetings, long-term absence framework.
• Whistleblowing (PIDA) Policy — Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998, protected disclosure routes, EU Directive 2019/1937 compatibility.
• Anti-Bribery & Corruption Policy — Bribery Act 2010, s.7 "adequate procedures" defence, gifts & hospitality register.
• Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) — ISO 27001:2022 A.5.10, NIST CSF mapped, enforceable conduct standards.
• Flexible, Hybrid & Remote Working Policy — Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Act 2023, statutory request procedure, hybrid-working framework.
• Annual Leave Policy — Working Time Regulations 1998, carry-over rules, holiday-pay calculation post-Harpur Trust v Brazel.
• Data Protection Policy (UK GDPR / DPA 2018) — All 12 Article 13/14 elements, lawful basis register, DSARs.
• Bullying & Harassment Policy — Worker Protection Act 2024, preventive duty to take reasonable steps, third-party harassment.
• Code of Conduct — Confidentiality, conflicts of interest, social media, gifts & hospitality.
• Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) Policy — ISO 27001 A.8.1, MDM / containerisation, ACAS-compliant leaver wipe.
• Statement of Employment Particulars — Employment Rights Act 1996 s.1, day-one written terms, sections 4 + 5 variation procedure.

Why a pack rather than 15 single policies?

Quick answer. The 15 policies cross-reference each other — the disciplinary procedure references the whistleblowing route; the health & safety policy references the working time and sickness absence policies; the data protection policy references the BYOD and acceptable use policies. Buying them as a pack guarantees the cross-references are coherent. Buying 15 single policies at £29.99–£49.99 each would cost more, lack the shared cross-reference table, and leave you to reconcile inconsistencies yourself.

• Cross-referenced. Each policy carries an explicit linkage table to the related policies in the pack — the disciplinary procedure cites the whistleblowing route by document control number, not by name.
• Coherent. All 15 policies share the same document-control table, version-control rules, approval cadence and review cycle. Buying single policies from different vendors typically produces conflicting headers and out-of-sync review dates.
• Cost-efficient. The pack is £400; 15 single policies at the simple-tier rate alone (£29.99 × 15 = £449.85) would already exceed it, and most of these policies are medium or complex tier.
• Acknowledgement-tracked. The pack ships with one acknowledgement form that captures employee sign-off on all 15 policies at once, with the audit trail your tribunal or ICO inspector expects.

Cost compared to a consultancy

Many UK SMEs typically pay an employment-law consultancy £5,000–£15,000 for a bespoke handbook — for example, a CIPD-accredited solicitor-drafted version typically runs at the upper end of that range. The PolicySuite UK Employment Pack at £400 is the same audit-readiness at a 12× to 38× cost reduction. The difference is structured generation: you answer 15–25 questions about your business (sector, headcount, jurisdictions, working patterns), and the platform produces all 15 policies as bespoke documents in minutes, fully editable as native Word .docx with primary-source citations to legislation.gov.uk, ACAS, ICO and HSE.

How PolicySuite generates your handbook

Buying the £400 pack unlocks the full handbook generation flow. The process:

1. Answer the structured questionnaire. 15–25 questions about your business — sector, headcount, jurisdictions, working patterns, sickness-absence cadence, IT estate, supplier exposure.
2. Receive your handbook within minutes. All 15 policies generated bespoke, version-stamped, with a single acknowledgement form ready for distribution.
3. Edit in Word. Drop in your company name, sign off, deploy to the intranet or shared drive. No DRM, no template-tracking pixels.
4. Track acknowledgements. Use PolicySuite's distribution module to capture employee sign-off with timestamped audit trail.
5. Re-generate when the law changes. Notification + one-click re-generation when statute amendments, ACAS Code revisions or relevant case law lands. Your answers are retained.

Further reading

The framework page UK Employment explains how the pack fits the wider UK employment compliance picture. For a primary-source overview, ACAS publishes the Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance Procedures that anchors the pack's disciplinary policy.

Or browse individual policies

If you only need one or two of the handbook policies, every one is available as a single SKU from £29.99: