Employment Tribunal Backlog Creates More Risk For Employers

The Ministry of Justice publishes quarterly tribunal statistics through HMCTS. The Q3 2025/26 figures, published March 2026, are unambiguous. The overall tribunal open caseload reached 831,000 by December 2025, the highest level since Q3 2013/14. Single employment tribunal open caseload increased 49% year on year in that same quarter. The system is not coping and receipts have exceeded disposals consistently across the past year, and the structural imbalance shows no sign of correction.  At that rate, clearing the existing backlog without any new claims would take nearly two years.

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What this costs employers in practice

The employment tribunal backlog employers must navigate translates into three distinct pressure points.

Duration of exposure

An average claim for unfair dismissal or discrimination now takes approximately 12 months to be listed for hearing, according to Ministry of Justice data. Some cases in London and the Southeast are being listed into 2028 and 2029. Throughout that entire period, the claim remains live. Legal costs accumulate and management attention remains divided.

Evidence degradation

When a hearing takes place 12 to 18 months after the original event, witness recall weakens. A process that was followed correctly, a decision that was made fairly, a conversation that was documented properly: all of these become harder to evidence as time passes. The backlog does not reduce the employer’s burden of proof, it simply makes meeting that burden more difficult.

Leadership distraction

Senior leaders and line managers are required to gather documentation, provide statements, liaise with legal advisers, and attend hearings. That time cannot be recovered, and for smaller organisations, the impact on operational capacity is disproportionate.

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The compensation landscape is about to change

The financial stakes are rising and the Employment Rights Act 2025 received Royal Assent on 18 December 2025. From 1 January 2027, the qualifying period for unfair dismissal protection will reduce from two years to six months (GOV.UK, business.gov.uk). The Government’s own economic analysis estimates that 6.3 million employees, approximately 22% of all employed workers aged 16 and over, currently sit in the six-months-to-two-years bracket and will gain protection immediately when that change comes into force (GOV.UK Economic Analysis, Employment Rights Act 2025).

The compensatory award cap for unfair dismissal will also be removed entirely from 1 January 2027. Currently, that cap sits at £118,223 or 52 weeks’ gross pay, whichever is lower. From January 2027, there is no ceiling. Discrimination claims already carry uncapped compensation. From that date, unfair dismissal will carry equivalent financial exposure. The employment tribunal backlog employers are already managing will grow considerably heavier.

From October 2026, the time limit for bringing most tribunal claims will also extend from three months to six months (ACAS, Employment Rights Act 2025). A wider window for claims, combined with a lower qualifying threshold and uncapped awards, points firmly in one direction.

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Why the backlog will not clear itself

The structural cause is not complex. Tribunal fees were abolished in 2017 following the Supreme Court ruling in UNISON v Lord Chancellor. Claims increased, but judicial capacity did not. The Judicial Attitude Survey found that 59% of first-tier employment tribunal judges considered their workload too high. The Ministry of Justice Q3 2025/26 statistician’s note confirms that single employment tribunal disposals have declined even as receipts have reached their highest level since 2012/13.

The Employment Rights Act 2025 will extend the ACAS early conciliation period from six weeks to twelve weeks, effective December 2025. That provides one mechanism for resolution before claims reach the tribunal. It is not sufficient to counterbalance the projected volume increase from the qualifying period change alone.

Prevention is the only variable employers control

The employment tribunal backlog employers face cannot be resolved from outside the system. What can be controlled is the probability of entering it. Claims rarely materialise without warning, they follow poorly managed performance conversations, inconsistent application of policy, inadequate documentation, and leadership teams without the skills to handle difficult people situations. Each of those is a preventable failure.

ACAS guidance is clear on what constitutes a fair process. Employers whose internal procedures align with that guidance, and whose managers are equipped to follow them consistently, are substantially better positioned. That alignment is not a compliance exercise, it is a strategic investment in avoiding a system that now takes over a year to resolve even the simplest case.

Closing the gap

The employment tribunal backlog is a consequence employers inherit from wider systemic failure. The Employment Rights Act 2025 will deepen that consequence for every UK employer. What you do before a claim arrives is the only moment you have full control.

Workplace disputes grow from the same roots: unclear expectations, undertrained managers, and people strategy that was never built to handle complexity. That is the gap I close. My work equips organisations with the frameworks, leadership capability, and people processes that reduce employment risk at source. When employers get their people strategy right, they rarely find themselves waiting in a tribunal queue that stretches to 2028.