Key employment legislation affecting employers from October 2007

Date	Subject	Development
1 October 2007	Annual Leave (Amendment to Working Time Legislation) Regulations 2007	Statutory minimum holiday entitlement will increase from 4 to 4.8 weeks (for a full-time worker this will equate to an increase from 20 to 24 days).
1 October 2007	Equality Act 2006	The Act will introduce the Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR), which will assume the functions of the EOC, CRE and DRC.
1 October 2007	National Minimum Wage Regulations 1999 (Amendment) Regulations 2007	These regulations will increase the national minimum wage as follows: · £5.35 to £5.52 for workers aged 22 and over; · £4.45 to £4.60 for workers aged 18 to 21 and those aged 22 and over doing accredited training in the first six months of employment; · £3.30 to £3.40 for workers aged 16 and 17.
1 October 2007	Racial and Religious Hatred Act 2007	The Act will come into force, creating new offences of stirring up hatred against persons on religious grounds, which will augment the existing offences in the Public Order Act 1986.
24October 2007	Remaining provisions of the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA)	All remaining provisions of the DPA come fully into force – manual filing systems in existence before 24 October 1998 will be required to comply fully with the DPA.