Employment Tribunal Claims At Highest Since The Introduction Of Fees

The provisional Tribunal statistics for the last three months of 2017 have today been published by the Government.

The report presents the latest statistics on type and volume of tribunal cases received, disposed of and outstanding in October to December 2017.

The key figures highlighted in the report are that single Employment Tribunal claims received increased by 90%.
 
This recent increase is most likely due to the abolition of Employment Tribunal Fees on 26 July 2017.

Single ET claims disposed of have increased by 21%, whilst the backlog of single ET claims increased by 66%.

In the report, The Ministry of Justice revealed that multiple ET claims received have increased by 467%.

The Employment Tribunal fee refund scheme was introduced following the abolition of fees. From the launch of the scheme, 4,800 applications for refunds were received between October and 31 December 2017, with 3,400 payments being made with a total value of £2.758m.

Expert Opinion

“These statistics reveal that employers are facing an avalanche of claims as employees are no longer put off using the tribunal process.

“What is also clear is that this demand is increasing the costs for employers and putting tribunals, which have cut their staff, under significant pressure to the point that they are struggling to cope and case outcomes are being delayed.”
Melanie Stancliffe - Partner

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