Employment Tribunal receipts increase by almost 20 per cent in three months to June 2020 compared to same period last year

Ministry of Justice attributes increase in single claims to rise in unemployment and changes to working conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic

Employment Tribunal receipts increased by almost 20 per cent in the three months to June 2020 when compared to the same period last year, according to new statistics from the Ministry of Justice (MoJ).

In Tribunal Statistics Quarterly, April to June 2020, the MoJ provides tribunal statistics, including for the Employment Tribunal (ET) and the ET fee refund scheme, for the first quarter of 2020/2021, noting that trends in tribunals receipts and appeals have been mainly driven by the impact of COVID-19 and related measures put in place by the different tribunal jurisdictions.

Key figures relating to single ET claims include that -

• receipts increased by 18 per cent to 10,000 when compared to the same period in 2019, most likely, the MoJ says, due to the rise in unemployment and changes to working conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic;
• disposals decreased by 21 per cent to 4,500 when compared to the same quarter in 2019;
• the mean age of cases that were disposed of during the quarter was 32 weeks, one week less than in April to June 2019. and
• the outstanding caseload rose by 31 per cent to 37,000, passing the peak levels seen in 2009/2010 (when it was 36,000 in quarter two of that year).

In addition, the MoJ provides figures for trends in claimant representation, including that the proportion of claimants represented by a lawyer fell to 56 per cent in 2019/2020, nine per cent lower than in 2018/2019 and continuing a declining trend over the last 3 years. During the same period, there has also been an increasing trend in the number of claims with no representation (or where no representative information is provided), which the MoJ says suggests that claimants are ‘taking advantage of the online system’ including direct links to claim forms.

For more information, see Tribunal Statistics Quarterly, April to June 2020 from gov.uk