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<p /> <p>I will answer these questions together as they are seeking information on
the costs and benefits of running the employment tribunals.</p><p> </p><p>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.</p><p> </p><p>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.</p><p> </p><p>The number of fee remission awards made each month
is available from financial information relating to fees and remissions in the employment
tribunals system published by HMCTS in its Annual Report and Accounts. The answer
by the Minister for the Courts and Legal Aid given on 15 October 2014 which can be
viewed at</p><p>http://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2014-07-15/206019/
records the number of fee remission awards in each month from July 2013 to June 2014.
The number awarded each month from July 2014 to December 2014 is shown below:</p><table><tbody><tr><td
colspan="7"><p><strong>Employment Tribunal Fee Remission Awards</strong><strong><sup>1</sup></strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>
</p></td><td><p><strong>Jul-14</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Aug-14</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Sep-14</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Oct-14</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Nov-14</strong></p></td><td><p><strong>Dec-14</strong></p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Individual
Claims (Single Claims)</p></td><td><p>532</p></td><td><p>510</p></td><td><p>521</p></td><td><p>864</p></td><td><p>533</p></td><td><p>499</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Multiple
Claims</p></td><td><p>7</p></td><td><p>2</p></td><td><p>2</p></td><td><p>8</p></td><td><p>4</p></td><td><p>8</p></td></tr><tr><td><p>Appeals
to the Employment Appeal Tribunal</p></td><td><p>31</p></td><td><p>14</p></td><td><p>32</p></td><td><p>51</p></td><td><p>23</p></td><td><p>38</p></td></tr></tbody></table><p><strong><sup>1</sup></strong>Timing
differences exist between data uploaded to the finance system and data entered at
source within employment tribunals fees systems. The monthly profile shown here reflects
the date remissions were recorded on the finance system. This may not reflect the
date on which remission applications were received or processed.</p><p> </p><p>My
Department expects to be in a position to publish more detailed data on the number
of remission applications made, and awards made, for the employment tribunals and
Employment Appeal Tribunal in the Tribunal and Gender Recognition Certificate Statistics
quarterly bulletin by the end of this financial year.</p><p> </p><p>It is not possible
to separate out reductions in variable operational costs resulting from changes in
employment tribunals claims from decreases in costs for other reasons. Excluding allocated
overheads, the cost of operating the employment tribunals for the year 2013 /14 was
£69m. The most recent forecast of cost in 2014/15 is £65m, a reduction of £4m in nominal
terms. Fee income for 2014/15 is forecast to be £9m, so the costs to the taxpayer
are forecast to reduce by £13m.</p><p> </p><p>Hardworking taxpayers should not be
picking up the bill for employment disputes in tribunals and it is reasonable to expect
people to contribute towards the bill for the service. Moreover, it is important to
remember that the Government has taken measures to ensure that those who have limited
means have fee waivers and are therefore not excluded from seeking redress in tribunals.</p><p>
</p><p>It is also worth noting the figures published by Acas show that over 37,000
people used the new early conciliation scheme in its first six months. This is a promising
start to the scheme and shows that there are alternative ways of resolving disputes
rather than always through tribunals.</p>
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