Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to Section 1 of the HM Courts & Tribunal Service annual report and accounts 2020-21, published in July 2021, HC 405, what actions have been taken as a result of the establishment of the ministerial taskforce to improve capacity, efficiency and productivity of the Employment Tribunal system.

Despite the enormous challenges they have faced, the employment tribunals remained open throughout the pandemic. We have harnessed the benefits of technology to ensure that the tribunals remain safely operational and accessible. We have maximised our use of remote hearings in the employment tribunals, which are now the largest user of the cloud video platform across all tribunals.

However, significant challenges remain. We are working closely with the judiciary to continue to improve our disposal rate through maximising judicial capacity and driving further recruitment of judges. The Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice and the Secretary of State for Business, Energy, and Industrial Strategy have also been working closely through a joint taskforce on what further measures we can introduce to take the employment tribunals towards recovery.

The taskforce is carefully considering what further actions we can take to support recovery across the employment dispute system, and to enhance its resilience and sustainability in the longer term. We expect to able to announce the first part of the taskforce’s work on further actions we can take to support the recovery of the system in due course.