The Ministry of Justice has published the provisional tribunal quarterly statistics for the period October to December 2017.
- The number of single claims and disposals rose by 90% and 21% against the same period in 2016, resulting in a 66% increase in the outstanding caseload.
- Since the abolition of fees, around 3,000 new cases have been issued every month. This is lower that the number of cases issued before the introduction of tribunal fees, when the average was around 5,000 new cases every month.
- 4,800 applications under the employment tribunal fee refund scheme were received in the period October to December 2017. Of these, 3,337 refund payments were made, amounting to £2.76 million.
- Employment tribunals disposed of 7,775 claims during the quarter, down 30% on the same period in 2016. 31% of claims disposed of were settled via Acas, 21% were withdrawn and 8% were successful at hearing.
Meanwhile Acas has published an update on the number of employment disputes that have been notified to it for early conciliation between April and December 2017. Acas reveals that, between the start of April and the end of July (when the Supreme Court abolished tribunal fees), it received around 1,700 notifications per week. However, since the end of July 2017 this rose to around 2,200 notifications per week.
Since 28 August there has been an increase in net ET1 receipts of 57% and in early conciliation notifications of 25% compared with the same period in 2016.
This article is taken from HR Law - April 2018.
