Employment Tribunal Statistics - 2007/2008

The Tribunals Service has published statistics for the year 1 April 2007 to 31 March 2008.

The total number of Employment Tribunal applications rose by 43 per cent to 189,303, compared with 132,577 applications in 2006/2007. However, many of these applications were for claims under more than one jurisdiction. Looked at by jurisdiction, the total number of claims for 2007/2008 was 296,963, compared with 238,546 for 2006/2007.

For the first time, the highest number of claims related to equal pay. There were 62,706 equal pay claims in 2007/2008, compared with 44,013 for the previous year. In 2005/2006 the figure was 17,268.

There were 55,712 claims related to working time in 2007/2008, compared with 21,127 in the previous year. However, the statistics for this type of claim do tend to fluctuate, there being 35,474 claims in 2005/2006.

There were 40,941 unfair dismissal claims in 2007/2008, compared with 44,491 in 2006/2007. Claims made under the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006 are increasing as employees become more aware of their rights under this legislation. The number of claims rose from 972 in 2006/2007 to 2,949 in 2007/2008.

Claims shown under the category 'other' also rose, from 5,072 in 2006/2007 to 13,873 in 2007/2008. This was because of a significant increase in the number of claims relating to trade union membership.

The Tribunals Service dealt with 81,587 applications of which 33 per cent were withdrawn and 29 per cent involved settlements conciliated by the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service. 13 per cent of claims were successful.

Statistics on the level of compensation awarded in 2007/2008 are as follows:

Jurisdiction Maximum Award Median Award Average Award
Unfair Dismissal £76,536 £4,000 £8,058
Race Discrimination £68,991 £8,120 £14,566
Sex Discrimination £131,466 £5,200 £11,263
Disability Discrimination £227,208 £8,363 £19,523
Religious Discrimination £5,720 - £3,202
Sexual Orientation Discrimination £22,850 £2,103 £7,579
Age Discrimination £12,124 £1,526 £3,334

The statistics show that there were 134 costs awards to claimants and 327 to respondents. The maximum costs award was £17,775.

The number of appeals disposed of by the Employment Appeal Tribunal at a full hearing was 466.

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