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Government reforms (1): Tribunal claims and fees – here to stay or gone tomorrow?

tribunal fees - stack of pound coins

What do we already know?

We reported in a newsflash in March Claims heading down… this year that the number of Tribunal claims being brought was on the decline – most likely linked to the introduction of Tribunal fees in the previous July.

We also reported in a newsflash in February Tribunal fees – here to stay (for now…) that UNISON had brought judicial review proceedings against the imposition of Tribunal fees, but these had been rejected by the High Court. However, that rejection was largely based on the fact that the High Court felt it too soon to properly assess the impact of Tribunal fees.

What’s new?

The MOJ has published the latest quarterly statistics for January to March 2014 and single claims are down 59% compared with the same period in 2013. This is a further very dramatic fall.

This does seem to clarify that the Tribunal fees regime continues to have a significant impact on the level of claims.

This will be encouraging to UNISON, which will no doubt rely on the latest statistics to build on its case for the repeal of Tribunal fees. UNISON has now been given the go ahead to appeal against the High Court’s rejection of its judicial review. The Court of Appeal is due to hear UNISON’s appeal sometime between September and December 2014. So watch this space for further news…

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