Government reforms (3): Tribunal claims – still low

What do we already know?

We updated you in our January Newsflash Tribunal claims – still low that for the period July to September 2015 there were low numbers of new claims, which was consistent with the previous quarter and on-going trend.

Also, we reported that there had been a drop of 39% compared to the same period of 2014. During the July to September 2015 quarter, Tribunals only made a decision on 9,157 claims and that was the lowest number since the statistics were first published in 2009.

What’s new?

The Ministry of Justice quarterly statistics for October to December 2015 and January to March 2016 show that claims have continued to reduce since the introduction of Tribunal fees.

During October to December 2015:

• 4,338 single claims were received by Tribunals, which is almost the same as in the same period of 2014 and 71% fewer than in the same period of 2012 (before the fees were introduced);
• there were 13,546 multiple claims received, which is 6.6% less than during the same period in 2014; and
• of the complaints disposed of by the Tribunals, 18% were associated with unauthorised deductions, 17% were for equal pay and 14% were for unfair dismissal.

During January to March 2016:

• 4,200 single claims were received by Tribunals, down 1% on the same period in 2015;
• there were 25,100 multiple claims received (up 56% on the same period in 2015, driven by a large airline case presented in January 2016 which primarily concerns working time and unauthorised deductions); and
• Tribunals disposed of 3,800 single claims, which is down 6% on the same period of 2015.