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10 October 2019 / Shantha David
Issue: 7859 / Categories: Opinion , Employment
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Employment tribunals: room for improvement?

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Claims in the employment tribunals have increased, but is justice being delivered? Shantha David reports

When employment tribunal (ET) fees were declared unlawful by the UK Supreme Court, Lord Justice Reed in his seminal judgment in R (on the application of Unison) v Lord Chancellor [2017] UKSC 51, [2017] 4 All ER 903 established that ‘the constitutional right of access to the courts is inherent in the rule of law’ [66].

He emphasised that the ‘right of access to the courts has long been recognised’ and cited Magna Carta as ‘a guarantee of access to courts which administer justice promptly and fairly’ [74].

So what has happened to ET claims in the two years since this momentous decision?

The rise & fall in ET claims

We know that following a peak in 2009–10, year on year, fewer claims were being lodged in ETs. When fees were introduced in July 2013, there was a dramatic overall drop of about 70% of single claims.

The latest government statistics published

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