Hello and thank you for your question, which I will be happy to assist you with. If you have 9 years continuous service then you are entitled to a minimum of 9 weeks notice to terminate your employment. However, you will be protected against unfair dismissal and that means your employer must show a potentially fair reason for dismissing you and follow a fair procedure. Just because your husband has the next door pub will not necessarily be a fair reason and if you were to be dismissed you can try and challenge this as an unfair dismissal

OK if you are actually self employed then that will potentially make a difference, however just because you are classified as self employed does not mean you are. You can use this test to find out your status:

www.hmrc.gov.uk/employment-status/index.htm#1

Whether a self employed worker is entitled to a notice period mainly depends on their contract. If there is a termination clause that specifies a notice period on termination, the employer would be expected to give that notice if they wish to end the employment relationship.

However, it is often the case that no written contract exists and the employment terms were agreed verbally. In such situations, the worker can still expect a 'reasonable' notice period to have their employment terminated. This is because they are working under a common law contract (not an employment contract) and to terminate such a contract a reasonable notice period would be required.

What is a reasonable notice period will vary greatly and will depend on the individual circumstances, industry practice, length of employment, frequency of payment, etc. There are far too many variable factors to consider that could influence this. As such, it is usually impossible to give a precise indication as to what would be reasonable in this case. Usually only a court can decide that for certain. What I can say is that unless the contract was terminated for a serious breach (such as misconduct or any other serious incident) a reasonable notice would be expected.