CA-2025-000379 - [2025] EWCA Civ 1357

This appeal raises an issue about the rules requiring would-be claimants in the Employment Tribunal (“the ET”) to notify the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (“ACAS”) prior to commencing proceedings so that it has the opportunity to try to resolve the dispute by conciliation. The provisions in question appear in section 18A of the Employment Tribunals Act 1996 (“the ETA”), the Employment Tribunals (Early Conciliation: Exemptions and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2014 (“the Early Conciliation Regulations”), and the Employment Tribunals Procedure Rules (“the Procedure Rules”) – together, “the early conciliation provisions”. I will set the relevant provisions out in full later, but for introductory purposes I need only say that they require the claimant, in most but not all cases, to include in the claim form an “early conciliation number” (“ECN”) supplied by ACAS, which shows that they have invoked the early conciliation process; and if that is not done the complaint will be rejected by the ET at the outset.