Richard Fox, head of employment law at Kingsley Napley LLP, has the following comments.

This commendably clear decision of the Supreme Court fires the starting gun on the run up to our serving the Article 50 notice to leave the EU. It brings clarity to the role of Parliament in this process. But it does not change the fact that from the Employment Law perspective we are not going to see dramatic change for some time.

The Government has already made clear its intention to pass a Great Reform Act preserving (for now) all European rights after we leave. Secondly, and importantly, Prime Minister May has given repeated assurances that she will not allow the Brexit process to affect workers’ rights. This is something she made clear again at the week end on the Andrew Marr show.

So even if the UK is forced to carry out its threat to become a light regulation, low tax economy, it does seem that we need not anticipate a bonfire of employment rights as part of the process. That is important in terms of managing employers and employees expectations.”