Employment Tribunals

Baroness Goldie Excerpts

Thursday 2nd July 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Levitt (Lab)]

Absolutely—I do not think anybody who is interested in access to justice, whether it is the employment tribunal or anywhere else, can fail to be concerned by an increase in waiting times and in the open case load, which we sometimes call the backlog. There has been a huge increase in the number of cases coming into the system, not just into the courts but through ACAS. We are not entirely sure why that is, and one thing we need to do is to find out why there is an increase, but I definitely share the noble Lord’s concern.

[Baroness Goldie (Con)]

My Lords, further to the question from the noble Baroness, Lady Jones, I wonder if there is any work afoot to try to triage cases, because it seems to me that, in some instances, what an employer needs is to have his or her head knocked against the wall, and the employee may deserve the same treatment. Is there somebody at an early stage who can do that?

[Baroness Levitt (Lab)]

It is partly the role of ACAS to do that kind of thing, but the Department for Business and Trade and the Ministry of Justice, working together across government, have set up the dispute resolution system taskforce. That is to support the Government in considering options to reform the employment dispute system so that it works better for workers and businesses. The taskforce will consist of unions, businesses, legal representatives and third sector organisations. Using all that combined expertise, it will help us find ways of achieving earlier resolution for some of these troubling cases.