As a follow on from my last bulletin about the Employment Tribunal fees review, I thought you might be interested in some statistics!

ACAS have reported that they received 83,000 applications for early conciliation in the year April 2014 to March 2015. This is not too surprising given that almost all claims now have to go to early conciliation before they can progress to the Employment Tribunals.

ACAS report that only 18,500 of these cases resulted in a claim being submitted to the Employment Tribunals. The Employment Tribunals’ own statistics confirm they received 18,500 claims and break this down into:
> 14,500 claims in which a full issue fee was paid – the issue fees are currently £160 for a money claim (e.g. unpaid wages) and £250 for most other claims (e.g. unfair dismissal or unlawful discrimination) with reductions for group claims;
> 4,000 claims in which the issue fee was waived in full or in part (on the basis of means testing).

ACAS then report that only 8,950 cases made it all the way to hearing. Historically, it has always been the case that a large number of cases haven’t got all the way through to a hearing because they have been withdrawn or settled. However, it seems likely that the hearing fees are putting Claimants off – hearing fees are currently £230 for a money claim (e.g. unpaid wages) and £950 for most other claims (e.g. unfair dismissal or unlawful discrimination) with reductions for group claims.

As I mentioned in my last bulletin, this is a significant drop in claims from the times before Employment Tribunal fees.

For example, in the year April 2012 to March 2013, the Employment Tribunals received 191,541 claims – which is over 10 times the figure for April 2014 to March 2015!

In the same year, the Employment Tribunals “disposed” of 107,420 claims. This means that they made a decision on the claim which may have been in a full hearing, or in a preliminary hearing, or on a paper application. In my view, it would be reasonable to work on the basis that the number of claims that made it all the way to hearing was 10 times higher before Employment Tribunal fees.

So we have seen a 90% drop in claims being submitted and claims reaching hearing.

(*all these figures are approximate and will have been rounded up/ down for ease of reporting)

As always, do feel free to contact me with your views or queries. My email is katebooth@eatonsmith.co.uk and my telephone number is 01484 821309

Best wishes
Kate
Posted Wednesday 29th of July 2015