Should I challenge my employer refusing a flexible working request without consultation?

[AManCanTellAThousandLies]

My employer has refused my FWR (two weeks before the deadline, which is fine, just for context) without offering a consultation first, which I understand is the law if they are planning to say no.

(Please someone correct me if I am wrong.)

Would you bring this up?

It does say on here that they should discuss with you before refusing. Have they given a reason?
https://www.gov.uk/flexible-working/applying-for-flexible-working

It actually says must not should so yes, I would bring it up.

They do have to give you a consultation before refusing, they can still refuse the request though so I’m not sure what you’d hope to gain. They’ve done the procedure wrong but you’d still get same answer

Hi, thank you. Yes they have given a business reason and that’s fine, but I would have liked the opportunity to discuss it during the (mandatory) consultation.

I have now, thank you.

Yes, they gave an acceptable reason, but they should have given me the opportunity for a consultation so I could suggest potential alternatives or discuss their thoughts. They haven’t given me this opportunity.

Thanks all.

I have asked them (politely) about why I was not offered a consultation before refusal.

It’s a breach of the regulations and I want to know why they decided not to offer it to me. I had alternative ideas to the FWR and I wasn’t given the opportunity to put these forward if they were considering refusal.

I won’t appeal their decision, the answer will be the same. I just want to know why they didn’t follow the correct procedure and give me the chance of a discussion, whatever the outcome of that would have been.