Last September, the Government embarked upon an extensive programme of reform of civil justice. On 23 February this year, it published a response to consultation on applying the principles of reform in the employment tribunal and EAT; it also introduced the Prisons and Courts Bill to the House of Commons. The headline news is that we will not be getting the ‘Employment and Equalities Court’ for which some had hoped. However, significant reforms are on the way, which will transform the way litigation is conducted.
Gavin Mansfield QC and Benjamin Gray summarise the proposed changes and set out the Employment Law Bar Association’s (ELBA) views on the key themes.
The background
Since the introduction of fees in July 2013, there has been much soul searching about the future of the employment tribunal. Some have queried whether it should maintain ‘separate pillar’ status, standing apart from the civil courts one the one hand and the first-tier/upper-tier administrative tribunals on the other. Some have favoured the creation of an Employment and Equalities Court. ELA’s own report, ‘Response by the Employment Lawyers Association to Proposals for a Single Employment Court’, 12 April 2016, weighed up the pros and cons.
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Reproduced from the ELA Briefing with the permission from the editor. For further information visit www.elaweb.org.uk.
