Labour Research April 2014

Law Matters

Tribunal fees

Quarterly tribunal statistics published by the Ministry of Justice for October to December 2013 show a dramatic 79% collapse in the number of new claims compared to the same period in 2012.

This was predicted by public services union UNISON, whose application for judicial review was dismissed earlier this year, not because of its merits but because it was too early to tell what the impact of tribunal fees would be (Labour Research, March 2014, page 23).

Giving judgment in the UNISON case, Lord Justice Moses conceded that if provisional figures available at that stage that suggested a plummeting in the number of claims turned out to be “anything like accurate, then the impact of the fees regime had been dramatic”.

And he warned that in those circumstances, the government would be expected to change the law without the need for further court intervention.

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/tribunal-statistics-quarterly-october-to-december-2013

www.unison.org.uk/news/dramatic-fall-in-tribunal-claims-shows-disastrous-impact-of-fees