The Ministry of Justice has published the statistics for the number of employment tribunal claims received between July and September 2013, the first stats since tribunal fees were introduced in July 2013.

• The normal monthly 'average' of new claims lodged with employment tribunals is 17,000.
• In June 2013 there were 25,000 receipts, and a further 17,000 in July.
• However, in August there were only 7,000 receipts. and Numbers increased back up to 14,000 in September.

Comment

The higher than normal average number of claims for the period June – July 2013 is probably explained by the fact that many Claimants will have rushed to get their claims in before the introduction of fees on 29 July. This is also probably the reason why the numbers in August were down. Overall, the numbers over the whole period are not that different from normal.

Paul Burton, Employment Associate, says; “It should be noted that these figures do not include claims lodged in August / September which are still sitting in the Leicester processing centre, awaiting payment of fees or a decision about remission. This means that the true number of claims lodged in August / September will be higher and therefore, overall, the effect at the moment of tribunal fees on the number of claims appears to be minimal. This is probably not what the government was hoping to see.”

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