Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to reduce waiting times for employment tribunals.

We recognise the significant pressure facing Employment Tribunals (ET) and are taking action to increase capacity, improve efficiency and reduce waiting times.

The ET was funded to sit for 32,590 days in 2026/27. The ET also operates a ‘Virtual Region’ allowing more cases to be heard remotely and matching available judicial resource to workload. The expectation is that this will reduce waiting times in geographical areas with particularly high waiting times (such as London and the South East). Alongside this, the ET has delegated more powers to Legal Officers to enable them to carry out functions of a judicial nature.

The Ministry of Justice and the Department of Business, Innovation, Science and Trade have set up the Dispute Resolution System Taskforce to support the Government in considering options to reform the employment dispute system so it works better for both workers and businesses. This Taskforce consists of unions, businesses, legal representatives and third sector organisations.

The introduction of the Fair Work Agency (FWA) is expected to take demand out of the ET. The FWA is responsible for enforcing domestic agency rules, the National Minimum Wage, licensing standards for gangmasters, and acting against serious labour exploitation. In time, it will also enforce additional rights, such as holiday pay and statutory sick pay.