ACAS Early Conciliation: Why more time may not be the best healer

Dominic Holmes, Kilgannon & Partners

Amidst all the noise about the UK Government trying to get its flagship Employment Rights Bill through Parliament, it has very quietly introduced an important change to the rules on starting employment tribunal claims.

If that sounds a bit dull, bear with me – because it does matter.

What’s the change?

Before an individual can lodge a complaint with an Employment Tribunal, they are required to instigate an early conciliation process through ACAS. 

Once they do this, the clock is stopped on the time limits for bringing a claim (the rules are a bit more complex than this, but that’s the basic premise). There is then a six-week early conciliation period, during which ACAS is tasked with assisting the parties to reach a compromise that avoids litigation altogether. 

If early conciliation is not successful, the potential claimant is issued with a certificate. Without this certificate, the Employment Tribunal will not accept their claim. So the early conciliation process requires them to pause and explore alternative dispute resolution through ACAS, before presenting a claim form.

The big change is that, from 1 December 2025, the early conciliation period will be doubled from six weeks to 12 weeks. 

Why the extra six weeks?

There is no clue in the Explanatory Notes to the catchily-titled Employment Tribunals (Early Conciliation: Exemptions and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2025. 

In its most recent annual report, ACAS stated that it received 20,000 more early conciliation notifications than in the previous year. When resources are already stretched thin, this inevitably results in conciliation efforts on some cases being delayed or perfunctory – which rather defeats the point. There is also plenty of anecdotal evidence which suggests that ACAS is struggling to meet the increased demand for its services.  

So it appears that this change is simply aimed at giving ACAS more time to get through the volume of early conciliation notifications it is receiving.

The CEO of ACAS has also been quoted by Personnel Today as saying it is “a prudent move and good news for workers and employers looking to resolve disputes at work, giving them more time to seek resolution without a potentially costly tribunal”. 

Is it good news?

There certainly hasn’t been much fanfare about it. If anything, it seems to be an emergency release valve to give hard-working ACAS conciliators some breathing space to give more cases the attention they deserve.

If I am being generous, I guess delayed conciliation is better than no conciliation. But this is not a ringing endorsement of quite an important change.

I have tried to think of other reasons why it might be good news. I wondered whether the extra six weeks could give potential claimants space to self-reflect on whether they really want to litigate. However, I doubt that this is more effective than an ACAS conciliator getting involved earlier and having a conversation with the individual about their complaint. 

It is also possible that the complainant finds another job in the meantime (if they have resigned or been dismissed), which reduces the value of the claim and/or dampens their appetite for a fight – but that could happen anyway and isn’t contingent on extending the conciliation period.

Overall, I tend to think it has limited merit – even if it may be a necessary stop-gap measure to ease pressure on a creaking system. 

I am concerned that it may simply become an exercise in can-kicking. 12 weeks is a long time. Potential claimants will wait longer to be contacted by ACAS, which means longer to bring a claim, which means longer until that claim is processed and (much) longer until it reaches a final hearing (if it cannot be settled earlier). Employers face longer periods of uncertainty and delay can often entrench positions on both sides.   

The value of ACAS early conciliation

The frustrating thing about all this is that ACAS early conciliation is actually pretty effective in helping to resolve employment disputes. 

There are undoubtedly some claimants (and employers) who simply see it as a procedural hoop to jump through, before they get to what they perceive as the real business of litigating. And that is unlikely to change. 

But the statistics are revealing – of the 117,000 cases where early conciliation was instigated by claimants last year, 78,000 (i.e. two-thirds) did not end up in a Tribunal claim being submitted. Only 10,000 actually required judicial time to resolve (such as a final hearing, strike-out or default judgment) – that’s about 8.5%. 

This means that approximately 91.5% of claims that started with early conciliation never got to a hearing. Clearly, not all of these will have been influenced by ACAS’s involvement, as there are other reasons why claims do not proceed. But that is still a pretty impressive outcome. 

I have been involved in plenty of cases where early conciliation has made a real difference, particularly when dealing with claimants who are unrepresented or have unrealistic expectations about what they can achieve through litigation.  I have seen the value ACAS conciliators offer, even where the dispute has been long-running and the parties’ working assumption is that it is a pre-action box to tick.

Is there a better solution?

Yes, in my view.  Put simply, ACAS needs more investment.

It seems to me that doubling the early conciliation period is the type of “sticking plaster” approach that the UK Government vowed to eschew, when it came into power last year. 

We all know public money is tight – and the fiscal challenges that are due to be addressed in the forthcoming Budget are well-documented. But a cursory glance at the numbers shows that a little additional money for ACAS will probably go a long way. 

In 2024-25, ACAS received around £58.3 million of public funding. Even if that was increased by say, 30%, it could have substantial impact for a sum of money that is insubstantial in the broader context of the funds available to the relevant government department. 

At a time when increased limitation periods and enhanced rights for workers in the Employment Rights Bill may result in more potential claims in coming years, there is logic in getting ahead of that anticipated influx by giving ACAS the resources to hire, train and give experience to a larger cohort of skilled conciliators. 

It could also be a really effective way to deal with the long backlog of cases in the Employment Tribunal. The success rate of early conciliation suggests there would be fewer new cases pouring into the Tribunal system. If there could also be more resources for ACAS to assist in conciliating existing claims, so much the better. This is ultimately a better way to resolve disputes. Although employment tribunal litigation cannot always be avoided, there are often no real winners once the case reaches a final hearing.

Our expert employment law solicitors all have many years’ experience advising individuals who are in your position. We will be able to guide you through the process and to help you secure the best possible outcome.

We offer a range of services, so please contact our friendly customer services team to discuss further via hello@kilgannonlaw.co.uk or 0800 915 7777.