Changes to employment tribunal rules

Increased Capacity and Efficiency

The backlog and lack of capacity in the tribunal system has been clear for some time (even pre-Covid).  To help solve this, as well as remote hearings, Non-employment judges are now sitting as employment judges in order to increase capacity.   Legal Officer duties will also extend.

Other Amendments

Judges will have far more flexibility to accept claim forms (despite errors in e.g. names/addresses/conciliation numbers) and to reconsider rejected claims or responses. Judges will be able to reconsider a rejected claim or response, rather than the judge who originally rejected it being the only one who can do so.

Early Conciliation

From 1 December 2020, the early conciliation period will now be six weeks instead of one calendar month. Conciliators will no longer be able to extend the early conciliation period.