Consultation outcome

Employment Tribunal postponement procedures

• From: Department for Business, Innovation & Skills
• Published: 16 January 2015
• Last updated: 11 February 2016 — See all updates

This consultation has concluded

Read the full outcome

Government response to the consultation on amendments to employment tribunal postponement procedures

Ref: BIS/16/21

PDF, 341 KB, 20 pages

Detail of outcome

We will amend the Employment Tribunal Rules of Procedure in the Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2013 to:

• limit the number of postponements that can be granted to a party, in a single case, other than in exceptional circumstances
• introduce a deadline after which applications for the postponement of a hearing would only be allowed in exceptional circumstances
• place an obligation on tribunals to consider granting costs orders where late notice postponements are granted

Detail of feedback received

We received 33 responses to the consultation. These mainly came from:

• legal representatives
• businesses and business representative bodies
• trade union representatives

We also had a few responses from individual members of the public and employment tribunal members.

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Original consultation

Summary

We want your views on proposed changes to Employment Tribunal postponements rules, to help reduce delays and costs in the process.

This consultation ran from
9:30am on 16 January 2015 to 11:45pm on 12 March 2015

Consultation description

We believe workplace disputes are best resolved outside the formalities of an Employment Tribunal. Where that isn’t possible, we want to provide a more efficient Tribunal service for all users. Stakeholders have raised concerns about unnecessary and short notice postponements. These can increase the length of the process and lead to extra costs for those involved.

Subject to Parliamentary approval, we’ll use the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment (SBEE) Bill to allow us to change existing rules and create new rules on Employment Tribunal postponement procedures.

This consultation seeks views and comments on the content of the new rules, together with views on the costs of postponements. This will inform our forthcoming impact assessment.

Documents

Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Bill 2014: consultation on amendments to employment tribunal postponement procedures

Ref: BIS/15/29

PDF, 559 KB, 26 pages

Published 16 January 2015
Last updated 11 February 2016 + show all updates

1. 11 February 2016

   Added government response.

2. 16 January 2015

   First published.