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Tribunal backlog is a mess and SMEs are stuck in the queue with everyone else

ended 21. December 2025

If you run a small business, the Employment Tribunal backlog is not just “a legal system problem”. It becomes a day-to-day business problem because the timeline is now so stretched that disputes can hang around for ages.

So what’s the rough timescale right now?

  • Before a claim even lands, most employees must go through Acas Early Conciliation first, and since 1 December 2025 that can run for up to 12 weeks. So you might not even hear the “we’re taking this further” bit until well after the workplace issue occurred.
  • From claim to final hearing, much commentary now puts straightforward unfair dismissal or discrimination claims at around 12 months, and in some cases closer to 18 months.
  • And yes, some reports warn that certain regions are listing years ahead (the sort of thing that makes small employers go very quiet and cancel hiring plans).

Meanwhile, official tribunal stats show the open caseload is growing because claims are coming in faster than they’re being cleared.  

Why is this brutal for SMEs

  • The process becomes the punishment. Even a weak claim can drain time, sleep, and cash flow.
  • You get pressure to settle just to stop the stress and distraction.
    It can make owners and managers risk-averse, especially around performance management, probation, and hiring.

Questions for small business owners
1. Be honest: would you settle a claim purely to avoid 12 to 18 months of hassle, even if you thought you’d win?  
2. Has the tribunal backlog made you more cautious about hiring or promoting someone into a management role?
3. Do you think longer delays encourage more claims, because there’s less urgency, and it costs little to “have a go”?  
4. If Acas can now run up to 12 weeks, should SMEs get clearer guidance on what to do during that limbo period?  
5. What’s the bigger cost for you: legal fees, management time, or the emotional toll on the team?
6. What’s the one fix you’d actually want: more judges, faster listing targets, mandatory mediation, or some cost protection for SMEs?

Sources:
GOV.UK – Tribunal Statistics Quarterly (July to September 2025) (Published 11 Dec 2025) https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2025/tribunal-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2025 

GOV.UK – Guide to Tribunal Statistics Quarterly (Published 11 Dec 2025)
https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tribunals-statistics-quarterly-july-to-september-2025/guide-to-tribunal-statistics-quarterly 

Acas – How early conciliation works (includes the 12-week change from 1 Dec 2025) https://www.acas.org.uk/early-conciliation/how-early-conciliation-works 

People Management – “Employment tribunal backlog tops half a million, government stats reveal” https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/article/1943260/employment-tribunal-backlog-tops-half-million-government-stats-reveal 

Personnel Today – “Open employment tribunal claims now top half a million” (Adam McCulloch, 12 Dec 2025)
https://www.personneltoday.com/hr/open-employment-tribunal-claims-now-top-half-a-million/ 

The Times – “Huge backlog of tribunal claims as new workers’ rights loom” (paywalled)
https://www.thetimes.com/business/entrepreneurs/article/huge-backlog-of-tribunal-claims-as-new-workers-rights-loom-8nd2mqqpq 

HRreview – open claims/delays discussion (incl. mention of listings as far out as 2028) https://hrreview.co.uk/?p=385432 

4 responses from the Newspage community

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Editor
Kate UnderwoodVerified
Founder & Chief People Strategist at Kate Underwood HR and Training
Employment Tribunal: the cheapest way to hurt a small business.
You can do everything right and still end up tied up in this for 12 to 18 months.
An ET claim might be free for an employee to bring, but it is not free for the employer. A straightforward defence is often quoted at £6,000 to £8,000, and the British Chambers of Commerce figure that gets mentioned a lot is around £8,500 to defend a claim. Even if you win, you will rarely get your legal costs back. Then there is the backlog. Government analysis has put the average time to a first hearing at around 49 weeks, and plenty of cases take longer from start to finish. So yes, sometimes settling is not admitting guilt. It is a commercial decision to protect cashflow and keep the business running.
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Sam Alsop-HallVerified
Chief Strategy Officer & Co-Founder at Clive Henry Group
The Employment Tribunal backlog is not just about delays. It is the result of a system where claims are easy to bring and painfully hard to dismiss, regardless of merit. Allegations can be exaggerated, fabricated or vexatious and still progress, with whistleblowing legislation particularly open to misuse. Once a claim enters the system, time becomes the weapon. Twelve to eighteen months of uncertainty drains cash, focus and confidence from small businesses.

For SMEs, the process becomes the punishment. I have personally spent tens of thousands of pounds defending against a false claim and I will always fight on principle, because allowing abuse only entrenches it further. There is little downside for claimants, no early merit filter and no real cost risk, but severe and lasting consequences for employers. I am confident my one hundred percent tribunal defence record will continue, yet it is absurd the system is in this state and deeply unfair on genuine victims who deserve better.
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Kundan BhaduriVerified
Entrepreneur, Investor and Landlord at The Kushman Group
The employment tribunal system has become a masterclass in how to strangle small businesses with bureaucracy. Claimants pay nothing to file, while SMEs face £8,500 minimum defence costs even for spurious cases they eventually win. The tribunal system has become weaponised bureaucracy where the process is the punishment. Twelve weeks of ACAS mediation followed by eighteen months of legal limbo creates a perfect storm for nuisance claims and settlement blackmail. Any rational business owner looks at those numbers and settles rather than fighting, which only encourages more marginal cases to flood an already broken system.
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Colette MasonVerified
AI Ethics Consultant at Clever Clogs AI
I stopped hiring UK workers 20 years ago. I moved everything offshore. Now I don't even do that. I use software instead.

Everyone's busy arguing about whether the tribunal backlog is fair to workers or brutal for businesses, but they're missing the actual decision tree most SMEs are quietly working through: UK worker means 12-18 months of legal exposure if it goes wrong. Offshore means a different risk profile. Software means no tribunal at all.

I appreciate workers need certainty and fair treatment. But businesses need flexibility. When the gap between those two things gets measured in years of stress and eyewatering legal bills, you don't get better employment practices, you get fewer employees.