Tribunal reform Regulations laid before Parliament

The Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2012 (SI 2012/468), which bring in various changes to the Employment Tribunal Rules of Procedure, have been laid before Parliament. The new procedural rules will apply to cases submitted to an employment tribunal on or after 6 April 2012. The changes brought in by the Regulations are that:

• the maximum amount of a deposit order, which a tribunal can order a party to pay as a condition to continuing with tribunal proceedings, increases from £500 to £1,000;
• witness statements are to be taken as read, unless the tribunal directs otherwise;
• employment judges can direct that a party makes a payment to a witness in respect of the costs of attending a tribunal hearing, and the losing party can be ordered to reimburse the winning party for any such costs that have already been paid out; and
• the maximum amount of a costs order, which a tribunal may award in favour of a legally represented party, increases from £10,000 to £20,000. 

These changes were announced in the Government's response to its consultation on "Resolving workplace disputes", along with a range of other proposals for reform of the law on employment disputes. 

• Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2012 The Regulations are available on the UK legislation website. 
• Resolving workplace disputes: Government response to the consultation (PDF format, 364K) More detail on the Government's proposals for reform of the tribunal system and the law on workplace disputes can be found in the consultation response document (on the BIS website). 

Also

The XpertHR FAQs section includes answers to the following employers' questions:

• In what circumstances can an employment tribunal order one of the parties to pay the legal costs of the other party?
• How should a witness statement for use in employment tribunal proceedings be formatted?
• Can an employer request that other employees are not called to give evidence to an employment tribunal?

Podcast: "Radical" employment law reform; and employee engagement XpertHR consultant editor, Darren Newman, shares his thoughts on aspects of the Government's employment law reform proposals in the XpertHR Weekly podcast. The discussion continues in the following week's edition: Podcast: Christmas parties; and employment law reform. 

Legal timetable The XpertHR legal timetable sets out all the upcoming changes to employment legislation and provides details of new legislation that has recently come into force.