The Ministry of Justice has published employment tribunal statistics relating to the year April 2024 to March 2025, and specifically the quarter January to March 2025.  It is clear that employment tribunal claims are on the rise. 

The headlines are set out below.

Single claims

  • In 2024/25 the employment tribunal received 42,000 single claims, an increase of 23% from the previous year.
  • The employment tribunal disposed of 32,000 single claim cases, an increase of 6%.
  • There were 45,000 open (live) single claims at the end of March 2025, up from 33,000 at the same time last year.

Multiple claims

  • In 2024/25 the employment tribunal received 2,400 lead multiple cases (where two or more individuals bring claims arising from the same facts). This is an increase of 23% from the previous year and resulted in 73,000 multiple claims.
  • The employment tribunal disposed of 2,100 lead cases (37,000 multiple claims). This represents a 49% fall in the number of multiple claims disposed of compared with 2023/24.
  • At the end of March 2025 the number of open (live) multiple lead cases stood at 6,800, with an open caseload of 446,000, up from 410,000 at the same time last year.

Types of claim

  • Four jurisdictions made up around 60% of all the claims received over the last year: unfair dismissal (22%), breach of contract (14%), disability discrimination (13%) and unlawful deductions from wages (12%).

Looking ahead

These statistics demonstrate the rising number of employment tribunal claims. There was an especially noticeable increase in receipts in the last quarter of 2024/25 with a total of 37,000 new employment tribunal claims (approximately 50% more compared with January to March 2024).

Receipts are exceeding disposals and the employment tribunal system is dealing with a significantly increased working caseload. The total 491,000 open cases in March 2025 represents an 11% increase over the previous year.

This trend is set to continue as a result of the Employment Rights Bill, in particular when unfair dismissal (the most common type of claim) becomes a day-one right and the time limit for bringing a tribunal claim is extended from three to six months.

For more information please contact a member of Brodies Employment and Immigration team.

Contributor

Julie Keir

Practice Development Lawyer