26th April 2013

Quarterly Employment Tribunal Statistics Published

At the end of March, the Ministry of Justice published the statistics for the Employment Tribunals (and other Tribunals within HMCTS) for the period 1^st October – 31^st December 2012.

The statistics show that 42,603 claims were made to the Employment Tribunal during the above period.  However, this was a reduction of approximately 24% when compared to the same quarter in the previous year.  The report suggests that the decrease was caused by a reduction in claims under the Working Time Directive, which reduced by 44% over the last year and amounted to 25% of claims.

Of the 42,603 claims made to the Employment Tribunal between 1^st October – 31^st December 2012, there were a total of 73,918 jurisdictional complaints (on the basis that a number of jurisdictional complaints may be made within a single claim).  This means that, on average, there were 1.7 jurisdictional complaints per claim.  Of the 73,918 jurisdictional complaints, 17% were for unfair dismissal and 13% were in relation to unauthorised deductions.

During the above period the Employment Tribunal disposed of 25,305 claims – which means that the claims were either withdrawn, settled, dismissed or had been decided at a hearing.  This figure represents a 10% decrease on the same quarter in 2011.  Of the jurisdictional complaints disposed of 20% were for unfair dismissal, 16% were for unauthorised deductions, 13% were for breach of contract and 14% were associated with discrimination (age, race, sex, sexual orientation, religion or disability).

The statistics also show that the average age of a case (recorded from the date of receipt until details of the final judgment are given to the parties) at the time of disposal was 76 weeks.  However, this figure is heavily influenced by the age of “multiple cases” which can include complex matters and are often deferred while the judgment of a higher court is obtained.  As such, the statistics also show that 50% of claims (the median) were aged 30 weeks or less at the time of disposal.