Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 23 March to Question 31122, what assessment his Department has made of the reasons for the (a) decrease in the number of women and (b) increase in the number of men bringing equal pay tribunal cases against their employers.

The apparent increase in the number of complaints to the Employment Tribunals of equal pay made by men in 2015 was principally due to two large multiple claims issued during the year, involving mainly male claimants. Multiple claims are inherently more variable than single claims and comparisons which include multiple claims can be misleading about the trends in Tribunal caseloads.

We are undertaking a review of the impact of the introduction of fees in the Employment Tribunals. This will include an assessment of the impact of fees on the volumes of Employment Tribunal claims including in relation to gender and other protected characteristics.