Employment tribunal quarterly statistics for the period April to June 2018 have been published by the Ministry of Justice. The number of single claims received by employment tribunals when compared to the same period in 2017, before tribunal fees were abolished, has increased by 165%. Outstanding caseload in the tribunals has also increased by 130% since April to June 2017.
Despite the abolition of fees, more claimants are now representing themselves in tribunal rather than being legally represented. 17% of claimants were unrepresented in the year 2017/2018 compared to 9% in 2016/2017.
Following the abolition of fees, the government launched a fee refund scheme for those who had paid tribunal fees. As at 30 June 2018, over £10.5 million has been refunded.
The statistics show that disability discrimination claims achieved on average the highest awards when compared with awards for other discrimination claims in 2017/2018. The highest disability discrimination award during the year was £242,000. The average disability discrimination claim for the year stands at £30,700. For unfair dismissal, the maximum award was £415,227 and the average award was £15,007.
A quarter of all employment tribunal claims disposed of in the period from April to June 2018 reached a conciliated settlement through Acas, 26% were withdrawn by the claimants, 18% were dismissed upon withdrawal, 9% were struck out (not at a hearing) and 7% were successful at hearing.
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