Those who have recent experience of Employment Tribunals, or are currently involved in Tribunal litigation, will be all so aware of the long delays parties are experiencing in having applications heard, issues addressed, and cases disposed of.
Following the publication of a written question in Hansard on Wednesday, we now have an indication of the length of these waiting times. The publication sets out that, for the period up to March 2021, the average time from receipt of the ET1 to a first hearing (which could be a preliminary hearing) is 335 days for single claims (made by a single employee/worker), and 388 days for multiple claims (made by multiple employees/workers).
The data is only provided up to March 2021 because the Employment Tribunals moved to a new case management system and HMCTS is currently working to incorporate the new IT system to get up to date figures. Let’s hope the new system goes some way in assisting with reducing these waiting times!