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Employment Tribunals Regulations 2012

6 March 2012

Summary

Briefing on employment tribunal regulations (Adobe Acrobat Document 52kb)

This briefing sets out the views of Citizens Advice on the Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2012, and the draft Unfair Dismissal and Statement of Reasons for Dismissal (Variation of Qualifying Period) Order 2012.

The Regulations amend Schedule 1 to the Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2004, so as to: increase the upper limits on costs awards and deposit orders; provide that witness statements be taken as read; and give tribunals a power to order the losing party to reimburse the expenses of witnesses called by the successful party.

The draft Order increases, from one year to two years, the qualifying period of continuous employment for legal protection against unfair dismissal (and also for entitlement, on request, to a written statement of the reasons for dismissal).

Both the Regulations and the Order are intended to come into force on 6 April 2012.

Introduction

This briefing sets out the views of Citizens Advice on the Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2012, and the draft Unfair Dismissal and Statement of Reasons for Dismissal (Variation of Qualifying Period) Order 2012.1  In 2010/11, the 400 independent advice centres in England and Wales that constitute the CAB service advised some 280,000 people on almost 570,000 separate employment-related problems.

The Regulations and draft Order implement some of a package of reforms to employment law and the employment tribunal (ET) system on which the Government consulted in early 2011. Other reforms (such as early conciliation of all potential ET claims by Acas), will be taken forward by new primary legislation as soon as the Parliamentary timetable permits” and yet others are likely to flow from a six-month root and branch review” of the ET rules of procedure. But when announcing its response to the consultation, on 23 November, the Government indicated that it would bring forward immediately” secondary legilstion to implement its proposals in relation to: increasing the upper limits on costs awards and deposit orders; witness statements and expenses; judges sitting alone in unfair dismissal cases; and extending the qualifying period for protection against unfair dismissal.2  

1.www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/468/pdfs/uksi_20120468_en.pdf and www.legislation.gov.uk/ukdsi/2012/9780111519974/pdfs/ukdsi_9780111519974_en.pdf

2 www.bis.gov.uk/assets/biscore/employment-matters/docs/r/11-1365-resolving-workplace-disputes-government-response.