Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many (a) judges and (b) other people were employed in the Employment Tribunal by HM Courts and Tribunals Service in each of the last five years; and what proportion of those roles were vacant in that time period.

The number of judges and members of tribunals is published annually in the ‘Diversity of the Judiciary’ statistics. Headcount figures can be found at the tabs named “3_2_JO_Area”.

• 2020: diversity-of-the-judiciary-2020-data-tables.ods

• 2021: diversity-of-the-judiciary-2021-data-tables.ods

• 2022: Judicial_diversity_2022_Tables.ods

• 2023: 2023_JDS_tables.ods

• 2024: JDS_2024_tables_-_FINAL_v3.ods

We are maintaining investment in the annual recruitment of about 1,000 judges and non-legal tribunal members across all jurisdictions. Annual recruitment requirements for judicial and non-legal tribunal members are determined by business need and judicial departures.

HM Courts & Tribunals Service has recorded Employment Tribunal staff (including legal caseworker) headcount in December each year as follows between 2020 and 2024:

Staff vacancies in the Employment Tribunal over this period are not held centrally. Recruitment requirements for HMCTS staff and legal officers in the Employment Tribunal is determined in response to business need and staff departures.