Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many visa applications were in the appeal system as of 28 January 2025.
Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)
Data on appeals receipts and open caseload is published by HM Courts and Tribunals Service on a quarterly basis. The latest publication can be found at Tribunals statistics quarterly: July to September 2024 - GOV.UK. Table FIA_1 and FIA_4 of the Main Tables section shows First-tier Tribunal appeal receipts and caseload volumes to 30 September 2024.
Apr. 02 2008
Source Page: Tribunals service business plan 2008-09. 24 p.Found: efficient, independent and customer focused Tribunals Service.
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 42850 on Employment Tribunals Service: Standards, what assessment her Department has made of the level of staffing of (a) judges and (b) other people necessary to cut delays and ensure timely access to justice for all.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Ministers regularly meet the CEO of HM Courts & Tribunals Service to discuss a wide range of matters relating to the operation of court and tribunal services, including the Employment Tribunal. The issue of staffing requirements and the role of case coordinators across all jurisdictions form part of those discussions.
Future staffing requirements at the Employment Tribunal will be subject to the outcome of the Spending Review. Judicial recruitment is undertaken to replace known leavers, and also takes into consideration current pressures and assumed future workloads. The transition to the new reformed platform will help to improve efficiency and productivity.
Asked by: Harriett Baldwin (Conservative - West Worcestershire)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many Employment Tribunal claims were submitted in each of the last five years; and what proportion of those were resolved within six months.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
The number of Employment Tribunal claims submitted in each of the last 5 years can be found on www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics.
HM Courts & Tribunals Service does not hold information on the number of cases submitted in the last 5 years that were resolved within 6 months, but we do hold data on the number of disposals and the number of sitting days used. Sitting day data has been published in the quarterly Tribunal statistics up to the period 2023/24. The disposal rate can be acquired by dividing the number of disposed cases by the number of sitting days. For the Employment Tribunal, the disposal rate for 2023/24 is therefore 0.99 disposals per sitting day; and for EAT for the same period, is 0.89 disposals per sitting day.
Asked by: Alison Griffiths (Conservative - Bognor Regis and Littlehampton)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent representations she has received from legal professional bodies on the performance of employment tribunals.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
Ministers and officials have regular meetings with legal professional bodies to discuss a range of matters about the justice system.
To address the demands the Employment Tribunals are facing, their capacity is being increased. Following recruitment, in 2024 we had 21 more salaried judges in the Employment Tribunals than in 2023, and further recruitment for up to 36 salaried Employment Judges commenced in March 2025. 50 fee paid employment judges were appointed in 2024 and recruitment will commence for another 50 in early 2026.
HM Courts & Tribunals Service continues to invest in improving tribunal productivity through the recruitment of additional judges, deployment of Legal Officers to actively manage cases, the development of modern case management systems, and the use of remote hearing technology. A ‘Virtual Region’ of judges has delivered over 1,500 extra sitting days.
As a result, the Lord Chancellor was able to announce on 5 March a sitting day allocation for the Employment Tribunals of 33,900 in 2025/26, the maximum allocation they are able to sit.
We do recognise that there remain significant challenges for the performance of the Employment Tribunals. We are therefore continuing to monitor demand on Employment Tribunals and are working with the judiciary, HMCTS and the Department for Business and Trade on any further actions needed to alleviate pressures on the Employment Tribunals, improve efficiency and reduce waiting times to ensure timely access to justice for claimants and respondents.
Asked by: Baroness Coussins (Crossbench - Life peer)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask His Majesty's Government when the invitation to tender for the next contract to provide spoken word translation and interpreting services for HM Courts and Tribunals Service will be issued.
Answered by Lord Ponsonby of Shulbrede - Lord in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The Ministry of Justice’s invitation to tender for the new spoken word services contract is expected to be published in the autumn, subject to completion of approvals processes.
Asked by: Ayoub Khan (Independent - Birmingham Perry Barr)
Question to the Ministry of Justice:
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what performance monitoring is in place to monitor how many calls are unanswered in County Courts when individuals are trying to book a public counter appointment.
Answered by Sarah Sackman - Minister of State (Ministry of Justice)
HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) does have management information that includes data on telephony performance, such as volumes of answered and unanswered calls. This information does not specifically detail metrics related to unanswered calls for counter appointment bookings at County Courts.
However, centralising calls into our national contact centre has provided improved visibility into true call demand and the volume of unanswered calls. By combining this with post call data and speech analysis from answered calls, we can identify trends and make informed assumptions about the key drivers behind unanswered calls.
Individual County Courts may have their own procedures for managing appointment bookings. For instance, some courts require appointments to be made via specific phone numbers or email addresses. For example, Birmingham Civil & Family Justice Centre schedules counter appointments through a dedicated phone line our centralised telephony team would sign post our customers to.
Correspondence Feb. 27 2025
Committee: Public Accounts CommitteeFound: Nick Goodwin Chief Executive HM Courts & Tribunals Service 6.25, 6th Floor 102 Petty
Correspondence Feb. 25 2025
Committee: Justice Committee (Department: Ministry of Justice)Found: Nick Goodwin Chief Executive HM Courts & Tribunals Service 6.25, 6th Floor 102 Petty
Found: systems in England and Wales MoJ bodies HM Courts & Tribunals Service is responsible for the administration