29 January 2015

Ian Murray’s written question on Employment Tribunal fees remissions (11/12/2014) has been answered.

Ian Murray, Labour MP for Edinburgh South, asked:


“To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, pursuant to the Answer of 15 October 2014 to Question 206019, how many awards of remission of fees for employment tribunal proceedings were made in each month between 1 July 2014 and 30 September 2014; and how many such awards were to (i) single claimants, (ii) claimants in multiple claimant cases and (iii) applicants to the Employment Appeal Tribunal.”

The question was answered by Mike Penning MP. He also followed up a previous question by Chuka Umunna, asking the total aggregate cost of assessing fees remission claims.

Penning responded:

“I will answer these questions together as they are seeking information on the costs and benefits of running the employment tribunals.”

“Jadu Ltd was awarded a contract by the Ministry of Justice to establish, and support, a digital exemplar service including an online form and a payment system for employment tribunals in February 2013. That contract was for £1.2m including VAT and provided delivery of the system and support for two years. Jadu Ltd has received £800k including VAT since July 2013 for additional changes due to legislation and for further non-contracted improvements to the system.

For the period from 1 April 2014 to 31 December 2014 HM Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) has received a gross total of £9.0m in employment tribunal fees of which £2.4m has been forgone in fee remission, leaving £6.6m in net fees.”

His full answer, and the figures for each month are available here.