Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what the cost of the provision of non-legal members to Employment Tribunals was in each of the last five years for which figures are available.

Expenditure by HM Courts & Tribunals Service attributed to non-legal members in the Employment Tribunal in 5 financial years from 2017-18 to 2021-22:

Expenditure includes member fees, associated pension, travel, and subsistence costs. It does not include costs of training non-legal members incurred by Judicial Office, nor the cost of employer’s national insurance contribution incurred in respect of non-legal members as these cannot be disaggregated from costs for all fee-paid members.

The increase in expenditure in 2021-22 followed the implementation of a pension scheme for non-legal members. A change to eligibility meant non-legal members were offered access to the National Employment Savings Trust (NEST) pension scheme, with costs reflected from April 2021.

The expenditure excludes backdated pension contributions paid to Employment Tribunal non-legal members covering their eligibility for the period November 2012 - March 2020; which cannot be disaggregated from costs for all jurisdictions (£7.09m for all jurisdictions).