Charging Fees in Employment Tribunals and the ... - Ministry of Justice

Charging Fees in Employment Tribunals and the Employment Appeal Tribunal Summary ofresponsessome cases in level 2. The cost model developed in the Impact Assessment 11shows that the average costs for levels 2 and 3 cases are in a similar range.Moreover, as the cost model is based on a representative cost of a typical caseof its type, some level 2 cases can be as complex and as costly as a level 3.78. Consequently the Government has decided to combine the claim typesproposed in levels 2 and 3 into one fee level, which also has the advantage ofsimplifying the fee structure for users. The revised level 2 fee therefore nowreflects the overall average costs for all claims that were previously included inboth level 2 and level 3.79. The indicative fee levels proposed in the consultation were initially set toachieve around a third of the cost of running the tribunals. Mindful ofrespondents’ concerns about high fees, we have sought to reduce the feelevels where possible. We undertook a further iteration of the cost model andestablished that the issue fee under level 1 was not fully reflecting interlocutorywork. We have corrected this which led to a small reduction in the overall feepayable if the claim went to hearing, though an increase in the issue fee.80. Following these changes the Government proposes the following fees namely:Fee TypeIssue FeeHearingFeeTotal (ifhearingfee paid)Level 1 claims £160 £230 £390Level 2 claims £250 £950 £120081. In light of the above changes, and respondents’ proposals for re-allocation welooked again at the allocation of all claim types. We have allocated claims thatgenerally take little or no pre-hearing work, and usually require approximatelyone hour to resolve at hearing, in the Level 1 fee type. We have allocated allother claims, that typically take longer to case manage, and where hearingsare much longer, into the level 2 fee type. The draft list of allocations can befound in Annex C.82. We will work through further the implications that arise for the payment of feesbecause of an amendment to the claim type between issue and hearing as partof our implementation work.83. We do not think that the civil courts fee structure is a reasonable comparator toshow that employment tribunal fees are too high. Firstly, the civil courts chargefees at up to five points during the process, meaning that lower fees are paidmore often. Secondly in the civil courts higher fees are payable for higher valueclaims, whereas employment tribunals have no basis upon which to compare.11 Further detail of the cost model can be found in the Impact Assessment published alongside this response.23