If an employee has been given notice of redundancy, s/he is entitled to be paid during time off to look for a new job if, by the time her/his notice ends, s/he will have worked for the employer for two years. The following employees are not entitled to paid time off to look for work:-
employees who have worked for their employers for less than two years;
overseas employees;
merchant seamen;
share fishermen;
members of the armed forces;
police officers.
There is no definition of how much time the employer has to give but it must be reasonable. What is reasonable will vary according to circumstances, for example, the difficulty of finding work in certain areas, the time and travel involved, and the range of jobs an employee is looking at. In addition to the employee's statutory rights, s/he may have rights from her/his contract.
An employee who is under notice of redundancy is entitled to time off to look for work, whether or not s/he has an appointment to attend a specific interview.
An employee is entitled to be paid her/his normal wage for the work s/he does during the redundancy notice period. If the employee is entitled to paid time off and s/he takes time off to find work, then s/he is entitled to be paid her/his normal hourly rate up to a maximum amount. The maximum amount under statute is two fifths (40%) of the employee's normal weekly wage. This is the maximum amount that can be paid during the redundancy notice period while the employee is taking time off work.
This means that provided an employee does not take off more than two fifths of her/his normal weekly working hours over the whole of the notice period, s/he will not lose any pay. For example:-
An employee works 40 hours per week. S/he has a four-week notice period. Two fifths of her weekly hours is 16 hours, so provided s/he does not take more than 16 hours off to look for work over the four week notice period, s/he will be paid her/his normal wage.
Under her/his contract, an employee may be entitled to more paid time off than s/he is entitled to under statute.
If the employer unreasonably refuses to allow the employee time off work, or refuses to pay for this time, or the employee considers that the employer is restricting the amount of time off unreasonably, the employee can apply to an employment tribunal within three months of the day on which s/he wanted time off. The tribunal can order the employer to pay the employee up to the maximum amount.
So, check your dh's contract, which might allow for more than the statutory minimum. Even if it doesn't, the employee has still acted unlawfully and your dh is entitled to his wages, provided he fulfills the above criteria.