The new Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary, David Lammy, has ruled out reintroducing Employment Tribunal fees.

Rumours have been circulating in recent weeks that the Government was considering a return to charging users of the tribunal system, reviving an idea that had been proposed and consulted upon by the previous government (see here).

No tribunal fees have been in place since 2017, following the Supreme Court’s judgment in R (Unison) v The Lord Chancellor [2017] UKSC. There, the Court held that the Fees Order of 2013 which introduced fees for both the Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal was unlawful on the basis that it prevented access to justice and that it was discriminatory because the higher fees charged for so-called ‘type B claims’ put women at a particular disadvantage since they were more likely to bring such claims.

Since the fees were scrapped, there has been a marked increase in the number of cases at the Employment Tribunal. In response to the concurrent increase in costs for handling these cases, the previous government explained in its consultation that the proposal to reintroduce fees was justified on the basis that it would “relieve some of the cost to the general taxpayer by requiring tribunal users to pay for the tribunal system”. Furthermore, the government claimed that it had ‘learned lessons’ from the Unison judgment and sought to develop a fee structure that was fairer and more proportionate.

When news broke that the Government might be considering reviving this proposal in order to address budget pressures and to rescue an ‘overwhelmed tribunals service’ (which could become even more busy as a result of additional rights being established under the Employment Rights Bill) many union leaders described the idea as a disaster.

However, within days the Justice Secretary ruled out any such change, posting on X that “everyone, no matter their income, should be able to get access to justice to challenge unfair behaviour at work…That’s why it will remain free to bring a case to an employment tribunal”.