By Legal Futures Associate ARAG [1]
The employment tribunal backlog has continued to grow, according to data released by His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service (HMCTS) last week.
Analysis by legal expenses insurer ARAG shows that the rate at which cases are being dealt with has slowed, while the 74,320 ‘open caseload’ recorded in April is the highest on record [2].
As a result, the average time from receipt of an employment tribunal claim to disposal of the case had reached 59.6 weeks in April, an increase of nearly three months on the same figure a year earlier [3].
In total, the 2025/26 reporting year saw the disposal of 27,379 single and lead-multiple cases, almost 13% fewer than the previous year, while the number of new case receipts soared to 52,840 marking an increase of 36% on 2024/25.1
The number of cases includes both single claims brought by an individual claimant and ‘multiple’ claims brought against the same employer by a number of claimants. The total number of claims outstanding is now more than 530,000.1
In January 2027, the qualifying period of service required for an employee to claim unfair dismissal is due to be cut from 2 years to 6 months, following passage of the Employment Rights Act 2025.
The Economic Analysis of the Act published early this year projected that its overall impact would result in an additional 6,900 cases. However, this estimate was based on claims numbers and growth between 2023 and 2025 [4].
Commenting on the latest data, ARAG’s Andy Talbot, Director of Broker, ATE & Marketing said:
“Whether claims are becoming more complex or it is simply a question of capacity, the tribunal system clearly cannot cope with increasing claims volumes, despite the steps that the Ministry of Justice has taken to address the backlog of cases.”
We now have little more than six months before the qualifying period for unfair dismissal is cut from 24 months to just six. However equitable that may be, the tribunal system cannot handle thousands more claims.
There are now as many as 70,000 businesses and more than half a million people with an employment tribunal claim hanging over them, and it will be years before many of them see a resolution.
That outstanding caseload has been growing for more than a decade and has long since passed the point at which it impedes opportunity and economic growth.”
The data published by HMCTS last week show that the ‘Employment Tribunal Open Caseload’ at the end of April was 74,320 cases. The total in April 2025 was 46,843.2
Footnotes to the HMCTS statistics note that, for technical reasons, the data may still overcount the open caseload by an estimated 3%, but this would make little difference to the overall scale of the problem facing the employment tribunal system.