The Employment Tribunal: ‘Road Map’ for 2022/23
Key Contact: Claire Knowles
Author: Adam McGlynn
As has been the case for the last few, rather turbulent years, guidance has been published confirming the proposed ‘road map’ for the approach Employment Tribunals will take over the 2022/23 financial year. The Presidents of the Employment Tribunals in England and Wales and in Scotland have identified a number of continuing challenges, primarily with the difficulties of balancing the flexible benefits of video hearings with the technical difficulties of the CVP video conferencing platform and the communicational benefits of in-person hearings. With this in mind, the Presidents have taken this opportunity to confirm their ambitions for improvement, to thank the judiciary and support staff for their continued work, and to outline the default tribunal rules for 2022/23.
Anticipated Developments
- Following the technological reform which was catalysed by the Coronavirus pandemic, the Employment Tribunals have committed to the HMCTS Reform Programme which will see greater digitisation, automation, and hopefully greater efficiency and expediency as a result.
- A portal platform will be put in place to replace the need for letter and email exchanges with Tribunals and will have automated update functions.
- The listing process will be automated by ListAssist and a new remote conferencing platform, the Video Hearings service, will replace the current CVP platform.
Default Tribunal Rules
- Case management hearings will continue to be predominantly held by telephone or video.
- Substantive, public preliminary hearings will be held by video for straightforward preliminary issues and applications, however, more complex preliminary matters will mostly be heard in person.
- Applications for interim relief and judicial mediation will also continue to be held by video.
- Some final hearings will continue to be conducted in video, usually for simple ‘short track’ claims such as unpaid entitlements, however, greater use of in-person hearings will be made for final hearings in general.
- More complex claims proceeding through ‘standard track’ and ‘open track’ routes, will be held in-person by default, however, may need to be held by video in certain instances and in certain regions depending on availability and efficiency.
While the above rules will act as the Tribunals’ default approach for 2022/23, they remain under review and can be disapplied depending on the needs of parties in specific claims. If you would like to know more about tribunal procedures and how best to manage the tribunal process, please contact our employment department.
If you require any further information, please contact the Acuity Employment team.
