Employment Tribunal Claim from 1 December 2025
Employment Tribunal Claim
Acas Early Conciliation: Extension to 12 Week Conciliation Window
When thinking about making an Employment Tribunal claim, prospective Claimants must notify the Acas Early Conciliation service to try and reach an early agreement in advance of issuing the formal ET1 Claim Form to the Employment Tribunal.
What is Early Conciliation?
The role of Acas Early Conciliation is to communicate between the parties to try and reach a resolution to avoid the need for Tribunal escalation. If resolution is not possible during Early Conciliation, Acas will issue an Early Conciliation Certificate to allow prospective claimants to submit their matter to the Employment Tribunal should they wish to do so.
In accordance with Employment Tribunals (Early Conciliation: Exemptions and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2014(2), Early Conciliation was due to continue for the duration of six weeks, on the basis they had sufficient information from the Claimant and had authority to contact the employer in the proceedings to try to reach a resolution. If they did not have the required information from the claimant, they were able to close the file and issue the certificate early to ensure impartiality was kept.
Impact of the Change
Given the increasing demand of Acas from prospective claimants, some of which present more complex cases than others, the Government has prepared regulations to come into force from 01 December 2025 which will extend the Early Conciliation process from six weeks to twelve weeks. This is covered under The Employment Tribunals (Early Conciliation: Exemptions and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2025.
It is worth noting if a prospective claimant notifies on Acas of a claim on or before 30 November 2025, then early conciliation will still last for the six-week period currently in force.
This is being brought into force for multiple reasons. Not only will it encourage the prospective claimant and the employer in the proceedings to try and reach an amicable conclusion via settlement before the need for an Employment Tribunal, but also because employers are finding that Acas’ overstretched early conciliation function isn’t managing to contact them at all during the current (6 week) conciliation period from when the prospective claimant notifies Acas.
Of course, Respondents still have the power to engage or disengage with Early Conciliation at their own volition. On the basis the Respondent refuses to engage with Early Conciliation through Acas, then the Acas Conciliator will still issue the Certificate to the prospective claimant.
What does this legislative change mean in a real-life scenario?
Due to this change, there could be a delay with respect to the submission of an Employment Tribunal claim from the Claimant. The example below sets this out accordingly:
- Main Equality Act 2010 Incident / Effective Date of Termination: 04 December 2025
- Assuming the Claimant notifies Acas on the Final Day available to them (given the three-month time limit), the Claimant submits their claim to Acas on: 03 March 2026
- Assuming the Claimant runs their full 12-week course of Early Conciliation, and a settlement cannot be reached in this time, the Certificate will be issued on: 26 May 2026
- The limitation date is extended to 26 June 2026 (one month after issuance of Certificate) under 207B(4) Employment Rights Act 1996 or s123 Equality Act 2010; and then
Taking the above into consideration, an employer could be notified of a legal claim against them at an Employment Tribunal between 9 to 12 months after the event the Claimant is relying on occurred, given the overstretched Tribunal system causing a longer duration for Acknowledgement of Claims to be issued.
If you have any questions with respect to this, or employment law in general, please do not hesitate to contact a member of our employment team at:-
Kerseys Solicitors in Ipswich at [email protected] or telephone 01473 213311 or
Kerseys Solicitors in Felixstowe at [email protected] on 01394 834557 or
Kerseys Solicitors in Woodbridge at [email protected] on 01394 813732 or
Kerseys Solicitors in Colchester at [email protected] on 01206 584584 or
visit our web site and click “Call Me Back” where one of our employment law team will be happy to contact you at a time that is convenient to you.
