Digital future for employment tribunals among UK Government reform plans

Employment tribunal reforms including digitising the clams process have been put out to consultation by the UK Government – with an indication that timing of the reforms will be managed round the pending transfer of responsibility for the tribunals in Scotland under newly devolved powers.

In a joint foreword, ministers Margot James and Sir Oliver Heald QC state their belief that the tribunals "have not kept pace with changes in society or, in particular, with the way that users want and need to interact with our systems".

First among their proposals is digitising the whole claims process, so that claims are able to be made and subsequently processed online, "enabling electronic communication between the individuals and the tribunal, simplifying the process, speeding up the resolution of disputes and allowing users to engage with the tribunal at times and locations convenient to them". 

While most claims are submitted online, they then have to be printed out and processed on paper, and the reform programme aims to digitise this – perhaps including online decision making for simpler claims such as wage claims.

They also plan to delegate a range of routine tasks from judges to caseworkers, including procedural decisions that do not determine the outcome of the case, "so that judges can focus on those matters where their legal expertise and knowledge is needed, thereby speeding up the resolution of cases", and to deploy panel members without legal expertise according to their expertise and the needs of the case. Decisions about panel composition would become a judicial function to be exercised by the Senior President of Tribunals, rather than being set by ministerial order as at present.

The paper continues: "An important factor for consideration in relation to decisions about reforming the Employment Tribunal system, is the UK Government’s commitment to transfer the functions of reserved tribunals to Scotland as part of the implementation of the Smith Commission Agreement. This will take effect through the process set down in section 39 of the Scotland Act 2016. Following the transfer of responsibility for managing reserved tribunals in Scotland, the Scottish Government will be responsible for deciding how those tribunals are managed in future. The precise timing of that transfer has not yet been agreed by the UK Government and the Scottish Government.

"While the UK Government will continue to be responsible for managing the operations of Employment Tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal until they are transferred to Scotland, we recognise that any reform of those tribunals could have implications for that transfer. The UK Government and the Scottish Government have been working closely on plans to implement the Smith Agreement and will continue to do so in light of decisions made following this consultation."

Click here to view the consultation paper. The deadline for responses is 20 January 2017.