Employment Tribunal Statistics – April to June 2022

The Ministry of Justice has recently published its quarterly report on Employment Tribunal statistics for April to June 2022.

Trainee Solicitor Erin Garnham from our employment team comments on these figures and what they might mean for Tribunal cases.

Cases

There has been a significant increase of 114% in the disposal of cases — that is cases that are either resolved or closed — in comparison to last year.

This is a good sign that the backlog of claims created by the pandemic is being cleared and normal levels of work are being resumed by the Tribunal.

19,000 new cases were submitted to the Tribunal, a 10% drop compared to 2021. Of these, 12,000 were multiple cases. Across 2022 as a whole, there have been 11,742 multiple case claims submitted to the Tribunal – more than single claims or multiple claimant claims.

  • Multiple claims are those brought by two or more individuals against a common employer. The claims have similar circumstances and so can be grouped together.
  • Multiple case claims are those where a number of multiple claims are grouped and processed together.

These statistics are unsurprising. Post-pandemic we have seen significantly more multiple claims as businesses suffer the after effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. Claims which have increased include:

  • Protective Awards
  • Holiday pay
  • Equal pay
  • Unlawful deduction from wages

Awards

The highest awards made in this period by the Tribunal were for:

  • Disability discrimination claim (£265,719)
  • Age discrimination (£243,636)
  • Unfair dismissal (£118,842).

These claims include an injury to feelings award, as well as financial losses, which may explain why they are the highest. They are also uncapped, unlike ordinary unfair dismissal claims.

The average award in the recent statistics was shown to be £5,664.

Investment

The statistics have not been finalised for this quarter due to the implementation of a new data system across all Employment Tribunals. Hopefully, this signifies increased investment in the Tribunal System to process and dispose of claims more efficiently and return to pre-pandemic levels.

There has also been a recruitment drive across all Employment Tribunals which has seen 180 Employment Judges be appointed. Again, this increase in resources should assist in enabling the Tribunals to reduce the time it takes for cases to be listed.