The latest Employment Tribunal statistics for October to December 2017 show that Individual claims issued in the Employment Tribunal have increased by 90%, justifying the view that the Supreme Court’s decision last year has reopened the doors to claimants who otherwise wouldn’t have been able or willing to pay under the former fees regime.
The increase also means that the Tribunal Service needs to adapt rapidly to the increased demand . Having reduced the number of Tribunal staff following the introduction of the fees regime in anticipation of lower levels of claims, the Service is still operating at this level, despite the recent surge in claims. The statistics show that the backlog of individual claims has risen by 66%.
Parties are already factoring into their case management the fact they will have to wait much longer for hearings to be listed and for applications to be processed.”
The statistics also reveal that since the launch of the fee refund scheme in autumn 2017, the Ministry of Justice had made 3,337 refund fee payments, from the 4,800 refund applications made, to a total value of £2.8m. it is also the case that Claims previously rejected or dismissed for non-payment of ET fees are being reinstated, as are appeals struck out for that reason, giving causing some practical difficulties where ET files have been destroyed.
