ACAS has published statistics on its early conciliation (EC) service covering the period April to September 2017. According to the statistics, the number of notifications received by ACAS between April 2017 and the end of July 2017 were consistent with those received throughout the course of 2016-2017, with ACAS receiving roughly 1,700 notifications a week.
Since the Unison decision last year when tribunal fees were declared unlawful and abolished, it is not surprising to note that the number of EC receipts had increased by 23% but the number of tribunal claims lodged had increased by 59%. ACAS notes that the long-term consequences of the Unison decision were not yet possible to determine.