Tribunal Fees could be coming back
You may remember some years ago that some 10 years ago the MoJ decided to start charging Claimants who wanted to take their case to the Employment Tribunal, this regime lasted nearly four years and resulted in a 70% drop in cases. However by 2017 the Supreme Court outlawed the practice and overnight they got rid of all the charges.
This reversal caused chaos in the Tribunal service as infrastructure and staff levels were drastically cut during the charging period because of the huge drop in cases. Where employment tribunals had previously tried to keep to a target of 26 weeks for a case to be concluded, we were suddenly waiting over a year.
The MoJ made attempts to get rid of the backlog, but they were struggling, and then came COVID. The result of lockdowns and associated delays means that even now in 2025 cases are taking north of 24 months to be heard
The Supreme Court had said that a major issue with the fee regime was that they were excessive, which, of course, left the door open for fees at a much lower level to be reintroduced. And now it would appear that the Labour Government has decided to take to opportunity to bring back charges.
The expectation is that it will cost £55 to make a claim. While this isn’t a huge cost, it may be enough to make some Claimants uneasy about making their claim.
Premier Legal will, of course, let you know if and when when the new system is due to start and we wait with baited breath to see what the results are.
Deadline for Tribunal Claims to be changed to Six Months
The Employment Rights Bill, has been in the news for months, this is part of the governments flagship policy to make work, and it is getting very close to Royal Assent. In other words, close to becoming legislation.
There are many aspects to the proposed legislation, but one that has the potential to cause significant difficulties for employers is the section on making claims at the Employment Tribunal – it states that the time limit for making a claim will be increased from three months as it is at the moment to six months.
This effectively means that it could be six months or more before you even know if a claim has been made against your business. In practice because the Tribunal Service is so far behind it may mean an even longer delay.
Currently and employee has three months, less one day, to start their claim, this has to be done through ACAS Early Conciliation, this ACAS intervention can then take up to six weeks, after which an employee can get a further month to present their claim to the Tribunal, so we may be at well over five months before the claim is made.
When we add a further three months to this we could be in a situation where it is eight months plus, before a claim is made. It is currently taking two years to get claims to Tribunal after that, so you will see that it could be close to three years after employment ends before the case is heard.
People are going to need very good memories if they are to be witnesses, even assuming that they are still working for the business.
This change is one that the Trade Unions have been calling for, but it is difficult to understand why it is needed – there must surely be very exceptional circumstances for someone not to be able to make their claim within three months.
More changes are expected under the Employment Rights Bill – Premier Total Cover clients will receive updates as soon as the legislation is published.
The Government has produced a series of fact sheets, which can be found here – https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/employment-rights-bill-factsheets
You can also speak to Premier Legal about any issues or concerns. Meet the team, or skip straight to contacting us.
