The Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) (Early Conciliation: Exemptions and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2021

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations amend the Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2013 (“the 2013 Regulations”) and the Employment Tribunals (Early Conciliation: Exemptions and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2014 (“the 2014 Regulations”). Regulations 1, 2 and 3 come into force on 6th October 2021 and the remainder of these Regulations come into force on 1st December 2021.

Regulation 3 amends rule 54 of the 2013 Regulations to provide for Tribunals to give parties reasonable notice of a preliminary hearing and in the case of a hearing involving any preliminary issues at least 14 days’ notice.

Regulation 5 amends the 2014 Regulations to allow a prospective claimant to provide the names of more than one prospective respondent on an early conciliation form presented under rule 2 or in a telephone call made to ACAS under rule 3.

The primary impact of these changes is to reduce unnecessary bureaucracy in providing access to justice through the employment tribunal system. The estimated familiarisation costs to business, and the ongoing costs and benefits to business from these reforms are expected to be well below the threshold of £5 million a year required for the production of a full impact assessment.