Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce legislation to provide employment tribunals with the power to determine whether an employer has deducted the correct amount of money from an employee’s or worker’s wages where a Tribunal finds that one or more of the “excepted deductions” listed in section 14(1) to 14(6) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 apply.

Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government continues to look closely at these important issues. While we have noted the recommendations of the Law Commission, any decision to change current procedures must fully consider the impact this will have on the tribunal system, which remains under pressure, as well as the effect on Acas, who are responsible for conducting early conciliation.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce legislation to give employment tribunals jurisdiction to hear complaints by workers that they are working hours in excess of the maximum working time limits contained in regulations 4(1), 5A(1), 6(1) and 6A of the Working Time Regulations 1998.

Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government continues to look closely at these important issues. While we have noted the recommendations of the Law Commission, any decision to change current procedures must fully consider the impact this will have on the tribunal system, which remains under pressure, as well as the effect on Acas, who are responsible for conducting early conciliation.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce legislation to give employment tribunals jurisdiction to hear claims of unlawful deductions from wages that relate to unquantified sums.

Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government continues to look closely at these important issues. While we have noted the recommendations of the Law Commission, any decision to change current procedures must fully consider the impact this will have on the tribunal system, which remains under pressure, as well as the effect on Acas, who are responsible for conducting early conciliation.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for increasing the £25,000 limit on employment tribunals’ contractual jurisdiction in respect of claims by employees to £100,000, and thereafter maintaining it at parity with the financial limit upon bringing contractual claims in the county court.

Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government continues to look closely at these important issues. While we have noted the recommendations of the Law Commission, any decision to change current procedures must fully consider the impact this will have on the tribunal system, which remains under pressure, as well as the effect on Acas, who are responsible for conducting early conciliation.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for giving employment tribunals jurisdiction to determine claims and counterclaims for damages or sums due in respect of the provision by an employer of living accommodation.

Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government continues to look closely at these important issues. While we have noted the recommendations of the Law Commission, any decision to change current procedures must fully consider the impact this will have on the tribunal system, which remains under pressure, as well as the effect on Acas, who are responsible for conducting early conciliation.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to extend the time limits for bringing claims before employment tribunals.

Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government continues to look closely at these important issues. While we have noted the recommendations of the Law Commission, any decision to change current procedures must fully consider the impact this will have on the tribunal system, which remains under pressure, as well as the effect on Acas, who are responsible for conducting early conciliation.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the case for giving employment tribunals the same jurisdiction to determine breach of contract claims in relation to workers within the meaning of section 230(3)(b) of the Employment Rights Act 1996 as they have in relation to employees within the meaning of section 230(1) of the Act.

Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government continues to look closely at these important issues. While we have noted the recommendations of the Law Commission, any decision to change current procedures must fully consider the impact this will have on the tribunal system, which remains under pressure, as well as the effect on Acas, who are responsible for conducting early conciliation.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce legislation to enable employment tribunals to determine counterclaims by employers relating to a contract of, or connected with, employment where the alleged liability arose after employment has terminated.

Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government continues to look closely at these important issues. While we have noted the recommendations of the Law Commission, any decision to change current procedures must fully consider the impact this will have on the tribunal system, which remains under pressure, as well as the effect on Acas, who are responsible for conducting early conciliation.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce legislation to enable employment tribunals to determine counterclaims by employers relating to a contract of, or connected with, employment where the employee’s employment has not been terminated.

Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government continues to look closely at these important issues. While we have noted the recommendations of the Law Commission, any decision to change current procedures must fully consider the impact this will have on the tribunal system, which remains under pressure, as well as the effect on Acas, who are responsible for conducting early conciliation.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce legislation to provide for different financial limits on employment tribunals’ contractual jurisdiction to (1) claims by employees, and (2) counterclaims by employers.

Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government continues to look closely at these important issues. While we have noted the recommendations of the Law Commission, any decision to change current procedures must fully consider the impact this will have on the tribunal system, which remains under pressure, as well as the effect on Acas, who are responsible for conducting early conciliation.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to introduce legislation to give employment tribunals jurisdiction to apply set-off principles in an unauthorised deduction from wages claim under Part II of the Employment Rights Act 1996, limited to established liabilities for quantified amounts and to extinguishing the Part II claim, as recommended by the Law Commission

Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government continues to look closely at these important issues. While we have noted the recommendations of the Law Commission, any decision to change current procedures must fully consider the impact this will have on the tribunal system, which remains under pressure, as well as the effect on Acas, who are responsible for conducting early conciliation.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to ensure that the maximum award applying to Employment Tribunal claims brought under the Employment Relations Act 1999 (Blacklists) Regulations 2010 is at least increased to, and maintained at, the level of the maximum award for unfair dismissal under section 124(1ZA) of the Employment Rights Act 1996, as recommended by the Law Commission.

Answered by Lord Offord of Garvel - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)

The Government continues to look closely at these important issues. While we have noted the recommendations of the Law Commission, any decision to change current procedures must fully consider the impact this will have on the tribunal system, which remains under pressure, as well as the effect on Acas, who are responsible for conducting early conciliation.

Found: Members Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville Lord Goodman of Wycombe Lord Carlile of Berriew

Found: Members Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville Lord Goodman of Wycombe Lord Carlile of Berriew

Found: Members Baroness Bakewell of Hardington Mandeville Lord Goodman of Wycombe Lord Carlile of Berriew