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ARTICLE · 23 OCTOBER 2014

What Difference Has ACAS Early Conciliation Made?

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ACAS, the employment Advisory and Conciliation Service, last month issued its report on the first quarter’s figures for the new Early Conciliation procedure.

United KingdomEmployment and HR
Fiona Rushforth
Fiona Rushforth

ACAS, the employment Advisory and Conciliation Service, last month issued its report on the first quarter's figures for the new Early Conciliation procedure.

Why was Early Conciliation Introduced?

Early Conciliation was introduced on 6 April 2014. Its aim was increase the number of potential claims settled without being the need for a formal claim to be issued in the Tribunal, thus reducing the workload of the Employment Tribunal Service. This process replaced the previous system of "Pre Claim Conciliation," which was offered to all employees and employers on a voluntary basis.

The commencement of Early Conciliation was intended to compliment the introduction of Tribunal fees for Claimants, another measure with the same objective of reducing the number of claims. While ostensibly the latter measure aimed to weed out weak claims, the inevitable effect has been that it has vastly reduced the number of low-value claims (largely irrespective of their

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