Transfers covered by the Regulations

The Regulations apply when an undertaking or part of an undertaking is transferred from one employer to another.

Some examples of transfers are:

• where all or part of a sole trader's business or partnership is sold or otherwise transferred;
• · where a company, or part of it, is bought or acquired by another, provided this is done by the second company buying or acquiring the assets and then running the business and not acquiring the shares only;
• where two companies cease to exist and combine to form a third;
• where a contract to provide goods or services is transferred in circumstances which amount to the transfer of a business or undertaking to a new employer.
• The Regulations can apply regardless of the size of the transferred undertaking. Thus the Regulations equally apply to the transfer of a large business with many thousand employees or of a very small one (such as a shop, pub or garage).
• The Regulations apply equally to public or private sector undertakings.