Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the average length of proceedings in cases of unfair dismissal being heard by employment tribunals in each of the past five years.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
HMCTS does not hold separate data on the number of wrongful dismissal claims.
The quarterly average length of proceedings for unfair dismissal claims can be found in the published statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunal-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2021.
These are only available until April 2021. Publication of Employment Tribunal timeliness information ceased from April 2021 when the jurisdiction moved to an interim database with limited management information. Employment Tribunals are now in the process of transitioning to a new case management system and work is in hand as part of the HMCTS data strategy to reintroduce the publication of timeliness information at the end of this calendar year.
Several measures have been taken to reduce the average waiting time for a first hearing in Employment Tribunals including the recruitment of additional judges. To address growing demand, the government invested £2.85 million in December 2022 to allow up to 1,700 more cases to come before judges by the end of March 2023. We also created a virtual region of fee-paid judges to hear remote cases from any region.
Additionally, the Judicial Review and Courts Act transfers Employment Tribunal rule-making powers to the Tribunal Procedures Committee. This independent, judge-led committee will allow the Tribunal to respond more swiftly and flexibly to the challenges it faces through operational changes and rulemaking. This measure will also allow the judiciary to manage their workloads more flexibly, maximising the capacity of the Employment Tribunal
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what was the average length of proceedings in cases of wrongful dismissal being heard by employment tribunals in each of the past five years.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
HMCTS does not hold separate data on the number of wrongful dismissal claims.
The quarterly average length of proceedings for unfair dismissal claims can be found in the published statistics: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunal-statistics-quarterly-january-to-march-2021.
These are only available until April 2021. Publication of Employment Tribunal timeliness information ceased from April 2021 when the jurisdiction moved to an interim database with limited management information. Employment Tribunals are now in the process of transitioning to a new case management system and work is in hand as part of the HMCTS data strategy to reintroduce the publication of timeliness information at the end of this calendar year.
Several measures have been taken to reduce the average waiting time for a first hearing in Employment Tribunals including the recruitment of additional judges. To address growing demand, the government invested £2.85 million in December 2022 to allow up to 1,700 more cases to come before judges by the end of March 2023. We also created a virtual region of fee-paid judges to hear remote cases from any region.
Additionally, the Judicial Review and Courts Act transfers Employment Tribunal rule-making powers to the Tribunal Procedures Committee. This independent, judge-led committee will allow the Tribunal to respond more swiftly and flexibly to the challenges it faces through operational changes and rulemaking. This measure will also allow the judiciary to manage their workloads more flexibly, maximising the capacity of the Employment Tribunal
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to help potential claimants to obtain access to justice in cases of wrongful dismissal.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Employment Tribunals are responsible for hearing employment related disputes, including those related to unfair and wrongful dismissal. They provide an accessible and low-cost avenue for claimants, designed to be navigated without requiring legal representation.
Working with the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS), we have taken a number of steps to improve the capacity and efficiency of the Employment Tribunals, including the deployment of legal caseworkers, the recruitment of additional judges, and the establishment, by the judiciary, of an Employment Tribunal virtual region. Last month, we also made a small number of changes to the Employment Tribunal procedure rules which will support the implementation of a new reformed digital system, currently being developed and tested in four early adopter sites ahead of national rollout during the course of this year. Following these rule changes, we transferred the Employment Tribunal rule-making power to the Tribunal Procedure Committee (TPC) - an independent rule-making committee. Given the TPC’s expertise and experience, this transfer will improve efficiency in the making and amending of Employment Tribunal rules, to further enhance access to justice for all claimants. We continue to work with DBT and HMCTS on further measures to support the Employment Tribunals.
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they are taking to help potential claimants to obtain access for justice in cases of unfair dismissal.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
The Employment Tribunals are responsible for hearing employment related disputes, including those related to unfair and wrongful dismissal. They provide an accessible and low-cost avenue for claimants, designed to be navigated without requiring legal representation.
Working with the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) and HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS), we have taken a number of steps to improve the capacity and efficiency of the Employment Tribunals, including the deployment of legal caseworkers, the recruitment of additional judges, and the establishment, by the judiciary, of an Employment Tribunal virtual region. Last month, we also made a small number of changes to the Employment Tribunal procedure rules which will support the implementation of a new reformed digital system, currently being developed and tested in four early adopter sites ahead of national rollout during the course of this year. Following these rule changes, we transferred the Employment Tribunal rule-making power to the Tribunal Procedure Committee (TPC) - an independent rule-making committee. Given the TPC’s expertise and experience, this transfer will improve efficiency in the making and amending of Employment Tribunal rules, to further enhance access to justice for all claimants. We continue to work with DBT and HMCTS on further measures to support the Employment Tribunals.
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of claims for unfair dismissal were successful at employment tribunals for each of the past ten years.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
HMCTS does not hold separate data on the number of wrongful dismissal claims.
Data on the proportion of claims for unfair dismissal which were successful at employment tribunals for each of the past ten years is held in the published stats up to March 2021.
The ‘Unfair Dismissal’ table ET 3 gives a breakdown of the outcomes by proportion: Tribunal Statistics Quarterly: July to September 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The table below details the overall number of successful unfair dismissal claims by Financial Year from 2014-2015 to 2020-2021 only.
Financial Year 1 | No. 'Unfair Dismissal' Successful at Hearing 2 |
2013-14 | 2883 |
2014-15 | 2062 |
2015-16 | 947 |
2016-17 | 826 |
2017-18 | 975 |
2018-19 | 1050 |
2019-20 | 1209 |
2020-21 | 889 |
1. 01 April to 31 March
2. Unfair dismissal: Includes Unfair dismissal after exercising or claiming a statutory right. Unfair dismissal on grounds of capability, conduct or some other general reason including the result of a transfer of an undertaking on grounds of capability, conduct or some other general reason including the result of a transfer of an undertaking and Unfair dismissal in connection to a lock out, strike or other industrial action.
Publication of Employment Tribunal by jurisdiction ceased from April 2021 when Employment Tribunals moved to an interim database with limited management information. Employment Tribunals are now in the process of transitioning to a new case management system and work is in hand as part of the HMCTS data strategy to reintroduce the publication of Jurisdictional Outcome information at the end of this calendar year.
Data is taken from a live management information system and can change over time, as such the data may differ slightly to that of the official published stats as this data was run on a different date. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system and is the best data that is available.
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many claims for unfair dismissal were successful at employment tribunals for each of the past ten years.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
HMCTS does not hold separate data on the number of wrongful dismissal claims.
Data on the proportion of claims for unfair dismissal which were successful at employment tribunals for each of the past ten years is held in the published stats up to March 2021.
The ‘Unfair Dismissal’ table ET 3 gives a breakdown of the outcomes by proportion: Tribunal Statistics Quarterly: July to September 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The table below details the overall number of successful unfair dismissal claims by Financial Year from 2014-2015 to 2020-2021 only.
Financial Year 1 | No. 'Unfair Dismissal' Successful at Hearing 2 |
2013-14 | 2883 |
2014-15 | 2062 |
2015-16 | 947 |
2016-17 | 826 |
2017-18 | 975 |
2018-19 | 1050 |
2019-20 | 1209 |
2020-21 | 889 |
1. 01 April to 31 March
2. Unfair dismissal: Includes Unfair dismissal after exercising or claiming a statutory right. Unfair dismissal on grounds of capability, conduct or some other general reason including the result of a transfer of an undertaking on grounds of capability, conduct or some other general reason including the result of a transfer of an undertaking and Unfair dismissal in connection to a lock out, strike or other industrial action.
Publication of Employment Tribunal by jurisdiction ceased from April 2021 when Employment Tribunals moved to an interim database with limited management information. Employment Tribunals are now in the process of transitioning to a new case management system and work is in hand as part of the HMCTS data strategy to reintroduce the publication of Jurisdictional Outcome information at the end of this calendar year.
Data is taken from a live management information system and can change over time, as such the data may differ slightly to that of the official published stats as this data was run on a different date. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system and is the best data that is available.
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many claims for wrongful dismissal were successful at employment tribunals for each of the past five years.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
HMCTS does not hold separate data on the number of wrongful dismissal claims.
Data on the proportion of claims for unfair dismissal which were successful at employment tribunals for each of the past ten years is held in the published stats up to March 2021.
The ‘Unfair Dismissal’ table ET 3 gives a breakdown of the outcomes by proportion: Tribunal Statistics Quarterly: July to September 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The table below details the overall number of successful unfair dismissal claims by Financial Year from 2014-2015 to 2020-2021 only.
Financial Year 1 | No. 'Unfair Dismissal' Successful at Hearing 2 |
2013-14 | 2883 |
2014-15 | 2062 |
2015-16 | 947 |
2016-17 | 826 |
2017-18 | 975 |
2018-19 | 1050 |
2019-20 | 1209 |
2020-21 | 889 |
1. 01 April to 31 March
2. Unfair dismissal: Includes Unfair dismissal after exercising or claiming a statutory right. Unfair dismissal on grounds of capability, conduct or some other general reason including the result of a transfer of an undertaking on grounds of capability, conduct or some other general reason including the result of a transfer of an undertaking and Unfair dismissal in connection to a lock out, strike or other industrial action.
Publication of Employment Tribunal by jurisdiction ceased from April 2021 when Employment Tribunals moved to an interim database with limited management information. Employment Tribunals are now in the process of transitioning to a new case management system and work is in hand as part of the HMCTS data strategy to reintroduce the publication of Jurisdictional Outcome information at the end of this calendar year.
Data is taken from a live management information system and can change over time, as such the data may differ slightly to that of the official published stats as this data was run on a different date. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system and is the best data that is available.
Asked by: Lord Goodman of Wycombe (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government what proportion of claims for wrongful dismissal were successful at employment tribunals for each of the past five years.
Answered by Lord Bellamy - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Justice)
HMCTS does not hold separate data on the number of wrongful dismissal claims.
Data on the proportion of claims for unfair dismissal which were successful at employment tribunals for each of the past ten years is held in the published stats up to March 2021.
The ‘Unfair Dismissal’ table ET 3 gives a breakdown of the outcomes by proportion: Tribunal Statistics Quarterly: July to September 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
The table below details the overall number of successful unfair dismissal claims by Financial Year from 2014-2015 to 2020-2021 only.
Financial Year 1 | No. 'Unfair Dismissal' Successful at Hearing 2 |
2013-14 | 2883 |
2014-15 | 2062 |
2015-16 | 947 |
2016-17 | 826 |
2017-18 | 975 |
2018-19 | 1050 |
2019-20 | 1209 |
2020-21 | 889 |
1. 01 April to 31 March
2. Unfair dismissal: Includes Unfair dismissal after exercising or claiming a statutory right. Unfair dismissal on grounds of capability, conduct or some other general reason including the result of a transfer of an undertaking on grounds of capability, conduct or some other general reason including the result of a transfer of an undertaking and Unfair dismissal in connection to a lock out, strike or other industrial action.
Publication of Employment Tribunal by jurisdiction ceased from April 2021 when Employment Tribunals moved to an interim database with limited management information. Employment Tribunals are now in the process of transitioning to a new case management system and work is in hand as part of the HMCTS data strategy to reintroduce the publication of Jurisdictional Outcome information at the end of this calendar year.
Data is taken from a live management information system and can change over time, as such the data may differ slightly to that of the official published stats as this data was run on a different date. Although care is taken when processing and analysing the data, the details are subject to inaccuracies inherent in any large-scale case management system and is the best data that is available.