Employment Tribunal Receipt Statistics (Management Information): July to September 2013
Source: data.gov.uk (2018-05-25)

Tribunals and Gender Recognition Statistics. The bulletin presents the latest statistics on type and volume of tribunal cases received, disposed of and outstanding and the number of Gender Recognition Certificates applied for and granted.  

The bulletin focuses on information on receipts (i.e. cases received by HMCTS), the outcome of cases by category (e.g. cases disposed of at hearing) and the caseload outstanding (snapshot of live cases at a specific point in time) for the three largest tribunals: Employment, Immigration and Asylum, and Social Security and Child Support. Additional data are available on timeliness, jurisdiction, Employment Tribunal fees, smaller tribunals, Employment Appeal Tribunal and regional receipts for the Employment Tribunal (management information). 

Annual data are published as follows:
* Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal annual statistics are published in September; these include information on representation of claimants, compensation and costs awarded in the Employment Tribunal for the financial year.
* Data from the Special Educational Needs and Disability tribunals covering the academic year are published in December. Further breakdowns include information on the number of appeals registered by type and nature of special education need, and outcomes.
* The number of adjournments and postponements by jurisdiction are published annually in June, along with the number of judicial salaried and fee-paid sittings by jurisdiction.

In addition to monitoring tribunal workloads and timeliness, they are used to assist in the development, monitoring and evaluation of tribunal related policy in collaboration with other Government departments, e.g. DWP, BEIS and Home Office.

Employment Tribunal Receipt 
Statistics (Management 
Information): July to 
September 2013 
 
 
Ministry of Justice 
Ad-hoc publication  
 
Published 18 October 2013 


Employment Tribunal Receipt Statistics (Management Information): July-September 2013 
Executive Summary 
This ad-hoc statistical release publishes monthly data between January 
2012 and September 2013 on Employment Tribunal receipts following the 
introduction of Employment Tribunal fees on 29 July 2013. The key findings 
are: 
 Employment Tribunal receipts were around 40,000 for July – 
September in line with historical quarterly trends.  
 Monthly data on receipts are volatile and any interpretation should be 
treated with caution. This volatility is mainly driven by irregular 
receipts of multiple claims cases which can involve over 100 receipts 
per case, and occasionally over 1,000. 
 Between January – May 2013 an average of 17,000 receipts per 
month were received into the Employment Tribunal by HMCTS.  
 In June there were 25,000 receipts, and a further 17,000 in July 
2013. This sudden increase may be explained by people choosing to 
enter a claim prior to the introduction of fees.  
 In August 2013 there were 7,000 receipts, and 14,000 in September 
2013. 
All figures after January 2012 have been re-extracted from the 
administrative data system for this publication. As such these figures 
have not been through the same Quality Assurance process as Official 
Tribunals Statistics publication.  Therefore all figures should be 
treated as provisional and revisions are to be expected in the next 
official publication on 12 December 2013.  
 
 2

Employment Tribunal Receipt Statistics (Management Information): July-September 2013 
Introduction 
This ad-hoc statistical notice presents information on the number of claims 
received by HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) in the months July to 
September 2013. This information covers the period in which fees were 
introduced into the Employment Tribunal system.  
The Employment Tribunals are independent judicial bodies who determine 
disputes between employers and employees over employment rights. 
A typical claim brought by an individual against his/her employer claiming 
breach of employment rights is called a ‘single’ claim. Other claims to 
employment tribunals come from individuals involved in collective workplace 
disputes – two or more workers bringing claims against (usually) a single 
employer. Claims that are linked as part of these collective disputes are 
referred to as multiple claims. Multiple claims are processed administratively 
and managed judicially together in their respective groups. The grouped 
multiples are called ‘multiple claims cases’. Although the claims are 
managed together in the multiple claims case, the individual component 
claims are counted separately, as multiple claims. They form two thirds of 
the caseload outstanding for all tribunals. This is because multiple claims 
are often stayed pending the outcome of appellate proceedings in higher 
tribunals or courts; or are legally and factually complicated and so naturally 
take time to determine.  
For the purpose of this publication the following terms are used: 
Single claim or single case – this involves one individual against their 
employer. 
Multiple claims – claims brought by any two or more individuals against a 
common employer (or, occasionally, employers1), where the claims arise 
out of the same or very similar circumstances and so can be grouped and 
dealt with together. The multiple receipts here relate to the number of 
individuals bringing claims. 
Multiple claims case – where a number of multiple claims are grouped 
(and so processed and managed together), the collective group is referred 
to as a multiple claims case. Focus here, therefore, is on the number of 
separate cases that involve multiple individuals, rather than the number of 
component claims overall.   
Fees were introduced in the Employment Tribunals on the 29th of July 
2013. The fees apply for all cases lodged after this date. A different fee is 
payable for a single claimant or a fee group (for a set of multiple claims). 
                                            
1 In some circumstances, claims can be brought against more than one respondent 
employer. For example, where a company is sold by one employer to another (and a claim 
arises under the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations), two or 
more employers may be involved. 
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Employment Tribunal Receipt Statistics (Management Information): July-September 2013 
The total fees for the multiple claims cannot exceed the sum of separate 
single claims for the group. For more information on fees and the fee 
remission scheme please see the Employment Tribunals section of the MoJ 
website:  
www.justice.gov.uk/tribunals/employment 
Data breakdowns 
The information presented in this ad-hoc is presented on a monthly basis. 
There are also accompanying Microsoft Excel tables on the publication 
website with additional breakdowns on: 
1. The jurisdiction of the claim: please note that a claim (whether single 
or multiple) can be bought under more than one jurisdiction. As such 
the number of jurisdictional complaints is always greater than the 
number of (claim) receipts.  
2. The region in which the claims were lodged. 
For general information on the definitions of terms used in this statistical 
notice on Employment Tribunals please consult the April to June edition of 
Tribunal Statistics Quarterly or the Guide to Court and Administrative 
Justice Statistics.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 4

Employment Tribunal Receipt Statistics (Management Information): July-September 2013 
Findings 
This information has been drawn from a live administrative system managed 
by HMCTS. The figures for this report have been extracted in advance of 
the usual extraction date, and as such the information is provisional and 
subject to revision in subsequent publications.  
The data presented in this report include historic information at the regional 
level, with a monthly breakdown. This information was a bespoke extraction 
for this report and has been drawn from a live database. As such some of 
the figures in this report differ from previously published information and 
may be revised in future publications. 
Trend in Employment Tribunal Receipts  
Typically Employment Tribunal receipts account for about a quarter (23% in 
2012/2013) of all HMCTS tribunal receipts. In 2012/13 the Employment 
Tribunal received on average 50,000 new claims per quarter, roughly the 
same level as in 2007/08 (Figure 1).  
Provisional figures for July to September 2013 show there were nearly 
40,000 new claims, in line with previous quarters. However this data may be 
revised at a later date. The provisional data for July to September 2013 also 
includes some revised figures from January 2013. A fully reconciled revision 
will be done for the December Tribunals Statistics Quarterly publication.  
Figure 1: Employment Tribunal Receipts (quarterly), April 2007 to 
September 2013 
0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2
2007/8
2008/9
2009/10
2010/11 
2011/12
2012/13
2013/14
Number of receipts (thousands)
All Tribunals
Employment
 
Please note this chart is based on revised data, and is provisional, further revisions will 
take place in the next edition of Tribunals Statistics Quarterly.  
 5

Employment Tribunal Receipt Statistics (Management Information): July-September 2013 
The revised data also includes a monthly breakdown from January 2012 to 
September 2013 (Figure 2). This shows that the data are volatile and can 
change dramatically from month to month. Please note these data include 
single and multiple claims.  
Following the introduction of fees on 29th July there are only two months of 
data available (August and September). Users are advised that a claim is 
not considered as accepted until the fee is paid, or remission granted, which 
may increase the time it takes to enter cases onto the system.  
Figure 2: Total Employment Tribunal Receipts (monthly, January 2012 
to September 2013): New extraction for this report.  
0
5,000
10,000
15,000
20,000
25,000
30,000
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
2012
2013
Number of receipts
Employment
 
Single and multiple claims 
Employment Tribunal receipts can be broken down into single and multiple 
claims. Figure 2 above shows the total number of receipts, but this is not the 
same as the number of cases (where a number of multiple receipts can be 
counted as one case as they are bought against one employer2 by a 
number of people).  
Single cases 
A single case and single claim is the same thing, they involve one individual 
bringing a claim against an employer. In effect the alignment of case to 
claims is 1:1. Provisional data shows that the number of single cases were 
volatile from January to October 2012, after October 2012 they began to 
gradually decrease from nearly 5,000 in October 2012 to just over 4,000 in 
June 2013. The number rose to nearly 7,000 in July 2013, possibly as more 
claims were submitted prior to the introduction of fees. Provisional data 
shows the number of single cases then fell sharply to only 1,000 cases in 
September 2013, but as stated this may be revised upwards once fees have 
been paid and/or remitted. 
                                            
2 Occasionally, more than one employer can be involved. See footnote 1, above. 
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Employment Tribunal Receipt Statistics (Management Information): July-September 2013 
Multiple claims cases 
Multiple claims that are grouped, processed and managed together are 
called, collectively, a multiple claims case. Within a multiple claims case 
there will be two or more claims presented by individuals against a common 
employer (or, in some circumstances, employers). The alignment of case to 
claims is 1: many, where a multiple claims case could range from two 
individual claims to over 100, or even 1,000. Typically employment receipts 
show the number of individual claims, not cases, which can result in a lot of 
volatility (see Figure 2).  
When looking at the number of multiple claims cases, regardless of the 
number of individuals involved, there is a broadly flat trend from April 2012 
to June 2013. There is an increase in multiple claims cases for July 2013, 
again possibly due to people wishing to submit cases before the introduction 
of fees. There is then a decline in cases in August and September 2013 
(see Figure 3). 
Figure 3: Single and multiple claims cases (April 2012 to September 
2013) 
0
1,000
2,000
3,000
4,000
5,000
6,000
7,000
8,000
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
2012
2013
Number of individual claims
Number of single claims
Number of multiple case
 
As the number of multiple claims cases has been broadly flat for a number 
of months the volatility seen in the monthly data must be due to the number 
of people (or claims) involved in each multiple claims case. The volatility 
seen in the monthly data is due to the variation in the number of individuals 
involved in multiple claims cases, which ranged on average from seven to 
113 from April 2012 to September 2013. 
Users are advised that these figures need to be treated with extreme 
caution for two reasons: 
1. All figures after January 2012 have been re-extracted from the 
administrative data system for this publication. As such these figures 
have not been through the same Quality Assurance process as the 
Official Tribunals Statistics publication. Therefore all figures should 
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Employment Tribunal Receipt Statistics (Management Information): July-September 2013 
be treated as provisional and revisions are to be expected in the next 
official publication on 12 December 2013.  
2. Under the business processes to facilitate fee-charging, a claim is not 
entered onto the internal case management system from which 
statistical data are extracted until the relevant fee is paid or remission 
application granted. This means there may be a number of claims 
presented in August or September, but formally accepted at a later 
stage (for example after a remission application is granted).   
Employment Tribunals claims by jurisdiction  
In 2012/13 there were nearly 372,000 separate jurisdictional complaints for 
the 208,000 separate claims. This means there were an average of 1.8 
different jurisdictional complaints per individual claim (this is across single 
and multiple claims). The most common jurisdiction that complaints are 
bought under is Working Time Directive, accounting for a third of complaints 
in 2012/13.  
Employment Tribunals claims by region 
Claims can be submitted online or to an Employment Tribunal Office. Once 
a claim is received and acknowledged by HMCTS it is recorded on to the 
case management system and onwardly case managed through, ultimately, 
to disposal (for example, by listing for a hearing before the tribunal). The 
geographical data below relates to where the case was submitted and heard 
by the Tribunal panel, in most cases this will be the same location as the 
employer or the party that bought the claim.  
Table A: Employment Tribunal Jurisdictional claims by region, 2013 
Region
January February March
April
May
June
July
August September
London
20,745
24,163 20,599
3,991
3,954 15,493
7,672
3,654
15,991
South East
2,333
2,054
3,694
2,138
2,441
2,511
3,940
710
485
Midlands
5,569
8,033
7,717
4,104
4,722 10,014 11,830
2,952
1,203
South West
1,433
1,248
1,541
1,263
1,983
1,069
1,907
854
272
Wales
622
567
644
621
1,117
812
1,743
341
67
North East
3,384
3,094
2,749
2,946
1,962
2,126
3,177
2,479
274
North West
2,326
2,413
2,002
3,061
2,333
3,545
3,043
2,463
561
Scotland
1,222
1,443
1,624
1,448
1,623
1,199
2,240
1,144
207
Total
37,634
43,015 40,570 19,572 20,135 36,769 35,552
14,597
19,060  
 8

Employment Tribunal Receipt Statistics (Management Information): July-September 2013 
Data Quality and Limitations 
There are a number of issues for users to be aware of when considering 
these data.  
 The monthly data for employment tribunal receipts shows a great 
deal of volatility. As such the figures should be treated with caution. 
Early analysis suggests this volatility is driven by the number of 
individual people involved in multiple claims cases.  
 The data have been extracted earlier than usual to produce this 
publication, as such it is provisional and subject to revisions when the 
next edition of Tribunals Statistics Quarterly is published in 
December 2013.  
 The data have been extracted from a live administrative database in 
October 2013, and as such the monthly data may aggregate to 
different figures to those already published. We will revise the data in 
Tribunals Statistics Quarterly to reflect this new information in 
December.  
 The introduction of fees may have resulted in a longer time lag for 
claims to be entered onto HMCTS’ case management system, 
ETHOS. This is because claims are now not entered onto ETHOS 
until the fee has been paid or a remission has been granted. This 
means that data are likely to be revised upward in subsequent 
months.  
 Figures may vary from previously published figures for a number of 
reasons, including: 
o revision to the administrative system, including claims being 
entered onto the system outside of the month they were 
lodged; 
o submission or re-submission of large numbers of multiple 
claims; 
o multiple claims disbanding and being re-submitted as single 
claims or vice-versa;  
o claims being re-submitted with a different jurisdictional 
breakdown and, 
o Additional information received from the tribunals that had not 
been entered onto the ICT system at the time of extraction.  
 The monthly and regional breakdowns in this report are not routine 
and have been produced specifically for this publication. The MoJ will 
consider if regional data can be routinely produced going forward.  
 
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Employment Tribunal Receipt Statistics (Management Information): July-September 2013 
 
10
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Mike Elkins 
Chief Statistician 
Ministry of Justice 
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London 
SW1H 9AJ 
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Email: xxx@xxx.xx 
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