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The quarterly statistics have been published for the third quarter of 2025 and show a startling increase in the number of single claims being brought in the Employment Tribunals.
Compared with Q3 of 2024 Q3 2025 claims were up by a whopping 54%.
The Employment Tribunals National User Group Meeting minutes for 7 October 2025 cite that the tribunal’s workload has apparently been impacted by an increase in whistleblowing and discrimination claims along with the use of AI by unrepresented parties resulting in overly complex claims, responses and applications.
This number will only increase once the Employment Rights Act 2025 provisions come into full force such as the six-month qualifying period for unfair dismissal. Quite how the beleaguered and overburdened Employment Tribunals Service is expected to cope with this volume of claims is unknown.
The User Group minutes refer to the widespread use by litigants in person of AI which enables them to more easily collate information and find relevant legal information for use in bringing their claims? But there are other factors also likely in play too. Could it more generally be the current state of the economy – we know many businesses are laying off staff due to pricing and other pressures? Is it that workers are just more aware of their rights and more willing to bring cases?
We are unlikely to ever truly unearth the whys but what it does signal to anyone bringing a claim or contemplating bringing a claim is this: expect delays. We are seeing hearings cancelled at the last minute due to lack of judicial resources (no judges available to hear the claim).
Things are not likely to improve in the Employment Tribunals Service for some time to come unless there is a significant financial investment in the service. I note that Labour’s employment rights reforms have avoided touching on this at all. They are giving many new and improved rights but without a means to enforce those rights what really is the point??
You can read the full detail on the stats on the GOV.UK website here.
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