Employment Tribunal (Extension of Time Limits) (Miscellaneous Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2026

Lord Fox Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd June 2026 Lords Chamber

[Lord Fox (LD)]

My Lords, I am grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, for getting the old team together. I was missing the Employment Rights Bill, which had been such an important part of my life, so it is always good to get a refresh.

On UK employment tribunal waiting times—a point that the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, touched on—a 2026 analysis based on published decisions estimated an average of about 17 months for unfair dismissal cases in England and Wales, and a slightly better 14 months in Scotland. In some cases, the BBC reports that claimants in England and Wales have had to wait much longer than that. Tribunal delays vary a lot by case type and whether a case is single or multiple. Simpler unfair dismissal cases are obviously faster than discrimination or whistleblower cases, which tend to have longer hearings and require more evidence.

There is also regional diversity. As I have pointed out, Scotland appears to be materially faster than England and Wales. Can the Minister explain why that is the case, and what Scotland is doing that is significantly better, although still taking longer than it should?

The noble Lord asked whether the system is resilient and able to sustain this change. It is fair to say that this does not look like a resilient system; it looks like a system that has been stretched to or beyond breaking point. I am very pleased to hear the Minister say that the joint task force is beginning to offer some measures —he did not go into details as to what those measures are. The noble Lord, Lord Hunt, talked about triage. Triage would be a sensible way of sifting cases and filing them in the right way to improve the workflow through the tribunals that we have. Has analysis of the current waiting list been done to identify the sticking points and how they might be relieved? Are some tribunals better than others? Is there a league table? What extra resources have already been allocated, and what can be allocated? The Minister said that the task force was working “at pace”—a phrase that we all know we should avoid. I am sure that it was accidental.

Overall, this regret amendment is less about the measures it is seeking to regret and more about concern about the tribunal. As the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, pointed out, we talked a lot about the tribunal during the passage of the Employment Rights Bill. At that time, I said that once a case goes to a tribunal, both the employer and the employee are already in a losing position. Justice delayed, and delayed a long time, is justice denied, both for the employer and for the employee. I hope the Minister can address the issues we have raised, which, I would say to your Lordships, have very little to do with the statutory instruments in front of us. The regret amendment is merely a device that the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, has deployed to make sure that we miss the football—I point out that the England team are still 0-0; I wish them the very best, and I wish the Minister speed in his response.

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[Lord Hunt of Wirral (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord, Lord Fox. We are speaking, as we did several times during the passage of the Employment Rights Act, with one voice, and that voice tonight has met with a response from the Minister that still requires a whole range of actions to be taken. I join the noble Lord, Lord Fox, in recommending that everything possible should be done to resolve disputes at an earlier stage. This is the key, rather than overloading an already existing system that is creaking under pressure, although I know that tribunals are determined to try and meet the problems of overreliance and overcapacity.

I will say just two things about early resolution. I am troubled that discussions are taking place about the lack of resources for ACAS. ACAS could provide a great deal of opportunity for early resolution. I will also just say that I recall the noble Lord, Lord Fox, I think it was, or one of his colleagues, pressing for a review of Section 10, including the right to be accompanied at disciplinary and grievance hearings. Given the pressure on the employment tribunal system, does the Minister not agree—perhaps he might write to me about this—that better support for employees at an earlier stage might prevent some workplace disputes escalating unnecessarily? Will he at least indicate to us at some stage, perhaps in correspondence, how a review of that whole mechanism could proceed? There will be lots of opportunities, I hope, to resolve this.

[Lord Fox (LD)]

I was planning to write a letter on that very subject, because I felt that it was not necessarily due in this debate, so there is a letter heading in the Minister’s direction on the right to accompany. I appreciate the noble Lord raising that.

[Lord Hunt of Wirral (Con)]

That is another demonstration that the Opposition speak with one voice. It is now up to the Minister to answer, but in the meantime, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.