Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April 2025 to Question 42439 on the Employment Tribunals Service, what discussions she has had with HM Courts & Tribunals Service on collecting data on the number of Employment Tribunal cases outstanding aggregated by the duration of time they have been pending.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Ministers regularly meet the CEO of HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) to discuss a wide range of matters relating to the operation of court and tribunal services, including the Employment Tribunal. These discussions are part of ongoing engagement to ensure the efficient delivery of services across all jurisdictions. Work is currently ongoing to transition the remaining legacy caseload to the new case management system as part of the HMCTS data strategy to enable more comprehensive data to be produced.
That is expected to be available later this year.
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 3 April to Question 42441 on the Employment Tribunals Service, what discussions she has had with HM Courts & Tribunals Service on collecting aggregate data on the time taken to resolve individual employment tribunal cases.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Ministers regularly meet the CEO of HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) to discuss a wide range of matters relating to the operation of court and tribunal services, including the Employment Tribunal. These discussions are aimed at ensuring the efficient delivery of services across all jurisdictions. Publication of Employment Tribunal Timeliness information ceased under the previous Government from April 2021 when the jurisdiction moved to an interim database with only limited management information available. Between July 2022 and July 2024, Employment Tribunals have gradually transitioned to a new case management system as part of the Reform project and timeliness data for single cases only from this system was published for the first time in March 2025 - www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics. It is expected that timeliness and jurisdictional data will be available for single cases held on the reformed platform later in the year.
It is not possible to produce timeliness or jurisdictional data for the legacy case management system, therefore the data we can currently provide is limited. Work is currently ongoing to transition the remaining legacy caseload to the new case management system as part of the HMCTS data strategy to enable more comprehensive data to be produced. That is expected to be available later this year.
Mentions:
1: Lord Marks of Henley-on-Thames (LD - Life peer) amp; Tribunals Service. - Speech Link
2: Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede (Lab - Life peer) amp; Tribunals Service. - Speech Link
Asked by: Helen Grant (Conservative - Maidstone and Malling)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if she will make an estimate of the total cost to the public purse of accessing court transcripts for each of the last five years.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The cost incurred by HM Courts and Tribunals Service for transcription services in the five most recent financial years (April – March) is as below:
Financial Year | Total Spend (£) |
2019-20 | 1,252,201 |
2020-21 | 939,309 |
2021-22 | 1,258,353 |
2022-23 | 1,104,667 |
2023-24 | 1,043,971 |
These figures do not include transcription spend incurred by Legal Aid Agency which are covered by central funds as these are not included in the accounts for HM Courts and Tribunals Service.
Oral Evidence Dec. 18 2024
Inquiry: Interpreting and translation services in the courtsFound: Ministry of Justice, HM Courts and Tribunals Service, and HM Courts and Tribunals Service Oral Evidence
Asked by: Andrew Griffith (Conservative - Arundel and South Downs)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many sitting days were lost in employment tribunals due to (a) judicial and (b) administrative staff shortages in the last 12 months.
Answered by Nicholas Dakin - Government Whip, Lord Commissioner of HM Treasury
HM Courts & Tribunals Service does not hold information on sitting days lost in employment tribunals due to (a) judicial and (b) administrative shortages in the past 12 months.
Oct. 31 2024
Source Page: Number of civil servants by postcode, department, responsibility level and leaving cause, 2024Found: HM Courts and Tribunals Service Birmingham B46DW 10 [c] 10 0 0 0 20 Ministry of Justice HM Courts and
Mar. 24 2025
Source Page: Annex B: Useful documentsFound: SEAL Claimant(s) name(s) and address(es) including postcode Defendant(s) name and address(es) including
Asked by: Melanie Ward (Labour - Cowdenbeath and Kirkcaldy)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps her Department is taking to reduce average waiting times to access independent tribunals to hear appeals from parents against Child Maintenance Service decisions.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Appeals against Child Maintenance Service decisions are heard by the Social Security and Child Support Tribunal, which is part of the Social Entitlement Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal.
Reducing the outstanding caseload is the key measure to bring down the waiting times for tribunal hearings. We are currently focused on reducing the outstanding caseload in the Social Entitlement Chamber of the First-tier Tribunal.
HM Courts & Tribunals Service continues to invest in improving tribunal productivity through the recruitment of additional Judges, the deployment of Legal Officers to actively manage cases, the development of modern case management systems and the use of remote hearing technology as appropriate. If an expedited hearing is requested, a Judge or Legal Officer will make a decision on that issue, taking all the circumstances into account.
Data on Tribunals performance is published by the Ministry of Justice on a quarterly basis. Receipts, disposals and the outstanding caseload for individual Chambers in the First-tier Tribunal and Upper Tribunal, the Employment Tribunal and the Employment Appeal Tribunal can be found at the link below: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.
Dec. 21 2024
Source Page: Accounting Officer Memorandum: Financial Transaction Processing (FTP) Project. 3p.Found: Background and context HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) receives fee and other income from court