Immigration and Employment Tribunals Service: Administrative Delays

(asked on 20th September 2021) - View Source

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent steps his Department has taken to tackle the backlog of cases before the immigration and employment tribunals in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) Greater London and (c) England.


Answered by
James Cartlidge Portrait
James Cartlidge
Minister of State (Ministry of Defence)
This question was answered on 28th September 2021

Despite the enormous challenges they have faced during the last 18 months, both the Employment Tribunals and Immigration and Asylum Chamber (IAC) remained open throughout the pandemic. Both the employment tribunals and the IAC have adapted to remote ways of working and running hearings virtually, to ensure ongoing access to justice where cases cannot be heard in person. The IAC has also expanded the online Reform service (MyHMCTS) to enable most appellants to engage with the tribunal digitally. We have run ambitious recruitment campaigns across both jurisdictions, to expand our judicial capacity and boost caseworker numbers. This has been bolstered in the employment tribunal by a significant increase in our sitting day allocation for FY21/22, from 30k (FY20/21) to 37.5k (FY21/22).

Reticulating Splines