Employment Tribunal statistics

The Employment Tribunals have published their annual statistics for the period 1 April 2011 to 31 March 2012. Interestingly the total number of claims continues to decrease (from 236,000 in 2009/2010 to 218,000 in 2010/2011 and decreasing again to 186,000 in 2011/212).

Unfair dismissal claims have fallen from 47,900 to 46,300. If anyone is interested in reading the report it can be obtained from the Ministry of Justice website.

Employment Tribunal fees

The Ministry of Justice has recently published the results of its consultation on the introduction of fees in Employment Tribunals. These changes are intended to be implemented in the summer of 2013.

The purpose of introducing fees is to lower the cost of the Employment Tribunal system to the tax payer. The key point is the introduction of a two tier system of fees for issuing claims in the Employment Tribunal.

Level One Claims

For level one claims, which will be straightforward claims such as unlawful deductions from wages, there is £160 issue fee and £230 hearing fee proposed.

Level Two Claims

For level two claims, there is a £250 issue fee and a £930 hearing fee. For lodging an appeal at the Employment Appeal Tribunal there is a ?400 appeal fee and a £1,200 hearing fee.

The response paper states that these fees do not cover the actual cost of running the Employment Tribunal system and the Government is committed to reviewing the fee structure once it is up and running.