Asked by: Meg Munn (Labour (Co-op) - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, in what proportion of cases employment tribunals found in favour of the employee in the 12 months (a) before and (b) after the introduction of fees.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
The table below outlines the employee success rate at employment tribunals for the 12 month period a) before and b) after the introduction of fees on 29 July 2013.
The table shows the four quarters wholly before fees were introduced from July 2012 to June 2013, and the four quarters wholly after fees were introduced from October 2013 to September 2014.
Employment tribunal cases can be brought under a number of jurisdictions called complaints. Each jurisdictional complaint is decided separately within a case. The information provided is the number of jurisdictional complaints that were decided by an employment tribunal. Individual cases can have a number of outcomes for different jurisdictional complaints.
Employment tribunal outcomes are published quarterly at: www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics
Jurisdictional Complaints disposed pre and post fees | ||
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July 2012 to June 2013 | Total | % of total |
Claimant Successful1 | 34,998 | 42% |
Claimant Unsuccessful2 | 48,257 | 58% |
Total Jurisdictional complaints disposed | 235,811 |
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October 2013 to September 2014 | Total | % of total |
Claimant Successful1 | 23,034 | 37% |
Claimant Unsuccessful2 | 38,476 | 63% |
Total Jurisdictional complaints disposed | 218,615 |
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1 Claimant Successful includes Successful at Hearing and where a Default Judgment is made.
2 Claimant Unsuccessful includes Unsuccessful at Hearing, Default Judgment Claimant Unsuccessful, Dismissed at Preliminary Hearing and case Struck Out
Asked by: Meg Munn (Labour (Co-op) - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 16 March 2015 to Question 227352, if he will publish the data collected on protected characteristics for people making Employment Tribunal Service claims for each quarter from October 2012.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
Experimental statistics on Employment Tribunal (ET) fees data taken from the administrative IT system built to process fee receipts and remission applications, were published for the first time on 12 March 2015, as an Annex to the Tribunal and Gender Recognition Statistics Quarterly, October to December 2014 publication. It is our intention to publish them on a quarterly basis from this point forward subject to further data quality work.
Due to the experimental nature of the statistics, the publication stated that additional analyses will be carried out to assess their quality and that of the administrative system the data are extracted from. Information on protected characteristics is collected by this employment tribunal fee and remission IT system. Subject to the results of data cleansing and quality assurance work to assess its coverage, robustness and usefulness, figures on protected characteristics will be included in future publications in due course.
Asked by: Meg Munn (Labour (Co-op) - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average cost was of each case heard by an employment tribunal in each of the last three years.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
Employment tribunal cases can vary in nature and complexity and some can last over more than one year, particularly where collective disputes are involved. Claims in employment tribunals can be classified into either single or multiple claims. Multiple claims are where two or more people bring proceedings arising out of the same facts, usually against a common employer. Where claims are grouped as multiples, they are processed administratively and managed judicially together. We call these groups of claims ‘multiple claims cases’. One multiple claim case would therefore involve two or more claims. Claims can be disposed of in a variety of ways, including being rejected either because they are out of time, or have no reasonable chance of success. A minority of cases are disposed of at a full hearing.
There are therefore many ways the term an employment tribunal case can be interpreted. The costs directly attributable to each claim / case are not collected, as current systems do not allow us to link staff, judicial and other costs to claims / cases. As a result, it is not possible to provide average costs per case over the last three years on a comparable basis.
Asked by: Meg Munn (Labour (Co-op) - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the average cost to the public purse of an employment tribunal was in the 12 months (a) before and (b) after the introduction of fees.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
It is not possible to provide the average costs to the public purse of an employment tribunals in the 12 months before and after the introduction of fees on a comparable basis, as explained in my answer to PQ 223678.
Asked by: Meg Munn (Labour (Co-op) - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how the level of gross monthly income thresholds was determined for people applying for fee remission in employment tribunals.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
The current fee remission scheme was introduced in October 2013, which established a single fee remissions scheme across all courts and tribunals of HMCTS (including the Employment Tribunals but excluding proceedings in the Immigration and Asylum Tribunal) and the UK Supreme Court.
The gross monthly income test, which was introduced following a consultation exercise, is designed to ensure that fee remissions are targeted to those who need them most. Those on qualifying benefits, including Income-related Employment and Support Allowance, Income Support, Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance and Pension Credit Guarantee credit are automatically entitled to a full fee remission, provided they also meet the disposable capital test.
Asked by: Meg Munn (Labour (Co-op) - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information is collected by the Employment Tribunal Service to monitor the protected characteristics of people making claims to the Employment Tribunal Service.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
HM Courts & Tribunals Service collects information on the protected characteristics of those making a claim to the employment tribunals via the Diversity Monitoring section of the application form ET1. The form and questions can be found at http://hmctsformfinder.justice.gov.uk/courtfinder/forms/et001-eng.pdf.
Asked by: Meg Munn (Labour (Co-op) - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what representations he has received on whistleblowers who have been dismissed from their employment and are unable to afford employment tribunal fees.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
We have received no representations about the impact of Employment Tribunal fees on whistleblowers since fees were introduced in July 2013. Fees were introduced following a consultation exercise in 2012. A summary of the representations received, including on whistleblowers, and the Government’s response, are set out in “Charging Fees in Employment Tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal” which is available on the Ministry of Justice website at: https://consult.justice.gov.uk/digital-communications/et-fee-charging-regime-cp22-2011/results/employment-tribunal-fees-consultation-response.pdf Fee remissions are available so that those who are unable to afford to pay the fee are not prevented from accessing the Tribunal.Asked by: Meg Munn (Labour (Co-op) - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, when he plans to review the effect of the introduction of fees for employment tribunals.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
Small businesses can be hamstrung by unfounded employment tribunal claims and taxpayers should not have to pick up the £74 million bill for running the service.
We have made sure fee waivers are available for those who cannot afford to pay, as well as diverting people away from potentially acrimonious hearings, where possible, through a new early conciliation scheme which has already been used by 37,000 people in its first six months.
The Government has committed to review Employment Tribunal fees but believes this is better determined by the new Administration following the Election.
Asked by: Meg Munn (Labour (Co-op) - Sheffield, Heeley)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many applications for remissions relating to fees for employment tribunal proceedings have been (a) made and (b) awarded in each month since July 2013.
Answered by Shailesh Vara
My answer given on 15 October 2014, which can be viewed at
http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2014-07-15/206019, records the number of fee remission awards in each month from July 2013 to June 2014.
Official statistics are due to be published on 12 March 2015 which will include the number of remission applications made and awarded for the employment tribunals on a quarterly basis from July 2013 to September 2014.