Redundency scenario

[dot.hawkes]

Over the years, for various reasons, I have been asked by my company to reduce the hours on the department by reducing the contracted hours of one or more members of staff. Actually this has only happened once in 10 years. Now, having been asked to do this, I have been sent a support pack, a script, a set of criteria, guidelines,timetable for the individual steps , offer of counselling for me and any member of staff affected, and three versions of a pre-constructed letter .
has the law changed that much???????????

[buildersmate]

The origins of 'formalising' of rules around redundancy go back to TULRA (Trades Union & Labour Relations Act) in the early 90s.
There were some changes under the Information and Consultation of Employees Regulations 2004 and, as the name suggests, this is probably what has motivated your HR department to strengthen their process.
Oh, and a surfeit of lawyers looking to make some business.