Government to boost capacity in employment tribunal system, giving quicker outcomes for employees and employers

17 Sep 2020 04:00 PM

Business Minister Paul Scully introduces raft of technical changes to increase flexibility to employment tribunal system.

A raft of changes to boost hearing capacity in employment tribunals were yesterday (Thursday 17 September) introduced into Parliament by Business Minister Paul Scully. The reforms will give the system more flexibility in light of the global COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic. They will also allow tribunals to deal with increasing caseloads, following the abolition of employment tribunal fees in July 2017.

The government is changing employment tribunal rules to allow more flexibility for remote hearings and reduce the burden on courts, claimants and defendants. These changes will help tribunals hear more cases and make courts space available for other urgent cases, an important step in addressing the impacts of COVID-19.

The reforms will assist tribunals in ensuring the speedier delivery of justice for businesses and workers.

Business Minister Paul Scully yesterday said:

The employment tribunal system has held up very well in the face of an increased caseload and the impacts of COVID-19 – but these changes will boost its capacity further.

These reforms will provide further flexibility to the system to ensure workers and businesses receive quick and fair resolutions to disputes, both at this critical time and in the future too.

Courts Minister, Chris Philp, yesterday said:

These changes will provide speedier resolutions for businesses and employees alike, and are the latest step in our plan, backed by £80 million of funding and an additional 1,600 staff, to reduce delays and deliver justice.

We are pursuing every available option including increasing the use of technology, rolling out further safety measures to ensure our courts recover from the effects of the pandemic as quickly as possible.

One of the changes being made will allow the judiciary the option of deploying non-employment judges into employment tribunals, if certain criteria on suitability are met. This will help the employment tribunal system deal with demand, reducing unnecessary delays.

The government is also changing employment tribunal rules to allow more flexibility over virtual hearings. The change will reduce the need for physical hearings in the future making it easier for claimants and respondents, who, for example, will not need to pay travel costs.

This follows a recent £80 million boost for HM Courts and Tribunal Service to meet the unprecedented challenge presented by the pandemic to:

This is on top of a major £142 million investment across the courts system announced in July to speed up technological improvements and modernise courtrooms.

Other changes being implemented include:

The measures for the employment tribunal rules, use of legal officers and cross-deployment of judges will come into force on 8 October. The measures on early conciliation will come into force 1 December.