Tribunal statistics – October 2024 to December 2024

James Howarth, Associate

Each quarter the Ministry of Justice publishes statistics relating to employment tribunal claims. The latest figures, which were posted on 13 March 2025, relate to claims brought between October and December 2024. We draw attention to the following statistics highlighted in the report:

• 467,000 claims are ongoing at the employment tribunal, which is an increase on previous years.
• Of the 467,000 live claims, 424,000 are multiple claims (claims where a claimant brings more than one type of claim). Multiple claims often increase the complexity of proceedings.
• Tribunals are receiving more claims than they are disposing, with 26,000 new claims brought in this quarter compared to 14,000 claims being disposed.
• Disputes going through ACAS early conciliation are increasing. Although more cases are being settled during early conciliation, there are more disputes being raised.

Given the number of outstanding claims, the complexity of these claims and the amount of new disputes being raised through ACAS, it is likely that there will be ongoing delays at tribunal. This could affect listings as well as impacting on the ability for the tribunal to respond, issue documents and undertake hearings.

The National User Group in the Employment Tribunals recently reported that claims in the North West with a hearing time of 1-2 days are being listed in the first half of 2026. By contrast, hearings requiring 10 days plus in London South, South-East (Watford) and Midlands East regions are being listed in early 2027.

We consider that the pressures on Employment Tribunals will likely continue due to an increased awareness that employees have around their rights, partly due to the publicity surrounding the Employment Rights Bill.  Further, when the Employment Rights Bill is introduced, anticipated to be next year, we expect that making unfair dismissal a day one right, and extending the limitation period for most claims, will dramatically increase new claims brought at the employment tribunal.