The Ministry of Justice has published the tribunal quarterly statistics for the period July 2017 to September 2017.
Since the same period in 2016, the number of claims lodged by a single applicant have increased by 64% (the highest for four years), while the number of claims lodged by multiple applicants has decreased by 15%.
During this quarter employment tribunals disposed of 10,165 claims, up 23% compared with the same period in 2016. This was driven by a 42% increase in multiple claim disposals, which make up two thirds of all disposals.
The Justice Minister, Dominic Raab, speaking at the House of Commons Justice Select Committee in December, said that the government had received 4,689 applications, with 2,600 receiving approval. He admitted that the refund scheme was likely to be more expensive than previously estimated, costing around £35 million (£2 million more than originally projected). He said that claimants who were deterred from bringing claims because of tribunal fees would be able to bring a claim out of time, and reassured applicants that the government would work closely with Citizens Advice Bureaux to identify and contact all eligible claimants.
This article is taken from HR Law – January 2018.
