The Ministry of Justice has published the annual employment tribunal statistics for 2025 to 2026, alongside quarterly data for January to March 2026. The upward trend in the number of new claims is continuing to accelerate, along with a growing backlog.
The key points from the statistics are set out below.
Overall tribunal picture
- In Q4 2025/26 (January to March 2026) there were 22,000 tribunal receipts. 67% of these were single claims (11,857 - up 58% from the previous year) and 33% were multiple claims.
- The tribunal disposed of 11,000 claims meaning that, at the end of the quarter, there were a total of 531,000 open claims.
- The average length of cases has increased over the past year.
Single claims
- Over the year 2025/26, the employment tribunal received 50,000 single claims and disposed of 26,000 cases. This is a 39% increase in claims compared to the previous year, while disposals decreased by 12%.
- There were 64,000 single claims open at the end of March 2026 - a 55% increase compared to the same period in the previous year.
Multiple claims
- In 2025/26 2,400 lead multiple claim cases were received, 1,700 of which were disposed of. There were 7,500 open lead claims at the end of 2025/26.
- These lead cases cover 44,000 multiple claim receipts, 19,000 disposals and an open caseload of 467,000 at the end of March.
Types of claim
- The majority (52%) of complaints in Q4 2025/26 were made up of (i) unfair dismissal claims (23%); (ii) disability discrimination claims (16%); and (iii) unauthorised deductions claims (13%). The previous year these claims made up around 49% of cases.
- Interestingly the fastest growing types of claim are whistleblowing (112% annual increase to 2,199 claims) and disability discrimination (79% annual increase to 4,056).
Looking ahead
It is clear that employment tribunals are dealing with a significantly increased working caseload. This appears to be for a number of reasons, including the current economic climate and a greater awareness of employment rights. Another contributing factor may be the increasing use of AI tools by unrepresented claimants, adding further complexity and volume to an already stretched system.
This pressure on the tribunal system is forecast to intensify as a result of the reforms in the Employment Rights Act 2025. For example, the Government estimates that reducing the qualifying period for unfair dismissal claims to six months and removing the compensation cap will result in an additional 3,000 tribunal claims per year, while extending the time limit for bringing a tribunal claim will lead to an extra 2,100 claims each year. With unfair dismissal already accounting for 23% of claims, the impact of these reforms is likely to be significant. To keep up-to-date with all the reforms in the Employment Rights Act 2025 see our Employment Rights Act page and timeline.
For more information, or assistance with tribunal litigation, please contact a member of the Brodies Employment and Immigration team.
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