Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to respond to the correspondence of (a) 21 November 2025, (b) 15 December 2025 and (c) 20 January 2026 from the hon. Member for Arundel and South Downs.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
A response to the correspondence was sent on 27 January 2026.
The Department apologises for the delay in responding on this occasion and we regret that this fell short of expected standards.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will take steps with HM Courts and Tribunals Service to ensure that courts can accept attachments of more than 20 megabytes in size from plaintiffs and defendants.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
New digital systems developed by HM Courts & Tribunals Service during the Reform Programme, are already of sufficient size to cater for most documents that need to be uploaded during proceedings. Limits are currently 1GB for documents and 500MB for multimedia. These are in place to protect systems from malicious attack. A 1GB limit allows for a standard text document of around 26,000 pages, and around 7,000 pages if images are included. These standards will be the baseline for future digital development.
A review is being completed on the current limit relating to email submissions which is set at a lower level, and we recognise is particularly restrictive for users.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April 2025 to Question 42849 on the Employment Tribunals Service, if she will make an estimate of the number sitting days that were lost in employment tribunals due to (a) judicial and (b) administrative staff shortages in the last 12 months.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
I refer the hon. Member to the answer given on 3 April 2025 to Question 42849. Information on the number of employment tribunal sitting days lost specifically to judicial and staff shortages, as opposed to some other cause, is not held by the Department.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April to Question 42441 on the Employment Tribunals Service, what discussions she has had with HM Courts & Tribunals Service on collecting aggregate data on the time taken to resolve individual employment tribunal cases.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Ministers regularly meet the CEO of HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) to discuss a wide range of matters relating to the operation of court and tribunal services, including the Employment Tribunal. These discussions are aimed at ensuring the efficient delivery of services across all jurisdictions. Publication of Employment Tribunal Timeliness information ceased under the previous Government from April 2021 when the jurisdiction moved to an interim database with only limited management information available. Between July 2022 and July 2024, Employment Tribunals have gradually transitioned to a new case management system as part of the Reform project and timeliness data for single cases only from this system was published for the first time in March 2025 - www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics. It is expected that timeliness and jurisdictional data will be available for single cases held on the reformed platform later in the year.
It is not possible to produce timeliness or jurisdictional data for the legacy case management system, therefore the data we can currently provide is limited. Work is currently ongoing to transition the remaining legacy caseload to the new case management system as part of the HMCTS data strategy to enable more comprehensive data to be produced. That is expected to be available later this year.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April to Question 42850 on Employment Tribunals Service: Standards, what assessment her Department has made of the level of staffing of (a) judges and (b) other people necessary to cut delays and ensure timely access to justice for all.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Ministers regularly meet the CEO of HM Courts & Tribunals Service to discuss a wide range of matters relating to the operation of court and tribunal services, including the Employment Tribunal. The issue of staffing requirements and the role of case coordinators across all jurisdictions form part of those discussions.
Future staffing requirements at the Employment Tribunal will be subject to the outcome of the Spending Review. Judicial recruitment is undertaken to replace known leavers, and also takes into consideration current pressures and assumed future workloads. The transition to the new reformed platform will help to improve efficiency and productivity.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April 2025 to Question 42439 on the Employment Tribunals Service, what discussions she has had with HM Courts & Tribunals Service on collecting data on the number of Employment Tribunal cases outstanding aggregated by the duration of time they have been pending.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Ministers regularly meet the CEO of HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) to discuss a wide range of matters relating to the operation of court and tribunal services, including the Employment Tribunal. These discussions are part of ongoing engagement to ensure the efficient delivery of services across all jurisdictions. Work is currently ongoing to transition the remaining legacy caseload to the new case management system as part of the HMCTS data strategy to enable more comprehensive data to be produced.
That is expected to be available later this year.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what discussions (a) she and (b) Ministers in her Department have had with the CEO of HM Courts & Tribunals Service on the Employment Tribunals Service since 5 July 2024.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Ministers regularly meet the CEO of HM Courts & Tribunals Service to discuss a wide range of matters relating to the operation of court and tribunal services, including the Employment Tribunals. I also have regular meetings with other senior officials in the Ministry of Justice on the operation of the Employment Tribunals.
These discussions are part of ongoing engagement to ensure the efficient delivery of services across all jurisdictions.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of Employment Tribunal cases are withdrawn or settled before hearing due to delays in the listing process; and what assessment he has made of the potential impact on business productivity.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Settlements and withdrawals from legal proceedings may take place for a variety of reasons which are unconnected to delays in the court process. HM Courts & Tribunals Service does not hold separate data on reasons for settlements or withdrawals. Moreover, listing is exclusively a judicial function.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of trends in the level of employment tribunal delays on access to justice for (a) claimants and (b) respondents.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
We recognise that there remain significant challenges for the performance of the Employment Tribunals following the inheritance from the previous Government. We are determined to cut delays and ensure timely access to justice for all.
The Lord Chancellor announced on 05 March a sitting day allocation for the Employment Tribunals of 33,900 in 2025/26, the maximum allocation the tribunal is able to sit.
Following a recruitment drive, in 2024 we recruited 21 more salaried judges in the Employment Tribunals than in 2023. Further recruitment for up to 36 salaried Employment Judges commenced in March 2025. 50 fee paid employment judges were appointed in 2024 and recruitment will commence for another 50 in early 2026.
HMCTS continues to invest in improving tribunal productivity through the recruitment of additional judges, deployment of Legal Officers to actively manage cases, the development of modern case management systems, and the use of remote hearing technology. A ‘Virtual Region’ of judges has delivered over 1,500 extra sitting days.
We are continuing to monitor demand in the Employment Tribunals and are working with the judiciary, HMCTS and the Department for Business and Trade on any further actions needed to alleviate pressures on the Employment Tribunals, improve efficiency and reduce waiting times.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many sitting days were lost in employment tribunals due to (a) judicial and (b) administrative staff shortages in the last 12 months.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Vice Chamberlain (HM Household) (Whip, House of Commons)
HM Courts & Tribunals Service does not hold information on sitting days lost in employment tribunals due to (a) judicial and (b) administrative shortages in the past 12 months.