Draft Employment Tribunal (Extension of Time Limits) (Miscellaneous Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2026 Draft Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (England and Wales) (Amendment) Order 2026
House of Commons · General Committees · 23 Jun 2026 · 40 speeches · Official Report
The Committee consisted of the following Members:
Chair: Sir Alec Shelbrooke
† Alaba, Mr Bayo (Southend East and Rochford) (Lab)
† Cooper, Daisy (St Albans) (LD)
Coyle, Neil (Bermondsey and Old Southwark) (Lab)
Darling, Steve (Torbay) (LD)
† Davies, Shaun (Telford) (Lab)
† Dearden, Kate (Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business and Trade)
† Goldsborough, Ben (South Norfolk) (Lab)
† Griffith, Andrew (Arundel and South Downs) (Con)
† Griffiths, Alison (Bognor Regis and Littlehampton) (Con)
† Mohindra, Mr Gagan (South West Hertfordshire) (Con)
† Mundell, David (Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale) (Con)
† Opher, Dr Simon (Stroud) (Lab)
† Osborne, Tristan (Chatham and Aylesford) (Lab)
† Russell, Sarah (Congleton) (Lab)
† Stevenson, Kenneth (Airdrie and Shotts) (Lab)
† Tidball, Dr Marie (Penistone and Stocksbridge) (Lab)
† Webb, Chris (Blackpool South) (Lab)
Stella-Maria Gabriel, Committee Clerk
† attended the Committee
Second Delegated Legislation Committee
Tuesday 23 June 2026
[Sir Alec Shelbrooke in the Chair ]
Draft Employment Tribunal (Extension of Time Limits) (Miscellaneous Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2026
I beg to move, That the Committee has considered the draft Employment Tribunal (Extension of Time Limits) (Miscellaneous Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2026.
The Chair
With this it will be convenient to consider the draft Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (England and Wales) (Amendment) Order 2026.
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alec. These two instruments, alongside the amendments made by the Employment Rights Act 2025, extend the time limit for presenting claims to the employment tribunal from three months to six months across the majority of employment rights. The draft regulations apply to Great Britain, while the draft order applies to England and Wales. The changes will help to create a framework that is more consistent and accessible, and better aligned with the realities faced by workers and employers. I recognise that Members will be rightly concerned about the capacity of the employment tribunal and the wider dispute resolution system to adapt to this change, given the growing caseload. However, I make it clear that we fully understand the challenges and are already working on reforms focusing on making the system more effective, efficient and resilient. The dispute resolution system taskforce was set up by the Department for Business and Trade and the Ministry of Justice last year. It comprises representatives from business, trade unions, legal organisations and third sector organisations. The taskforce is helping to inform our work to develop reform measures, which include short-term, targeted measures to reduce pressure on the system as well as forward-looking measures intended to increase the efficiency, effectiveness and resilience of the system. Those will follow a phased approach, with work on some measures currently under way....
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alec. It is also always a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Halifax. She is the second Minister in her role in this Government, and I sincerely hope that we are not due a third. I wish her well over the coming weeks. There was a time- [ Interruption. ]
The Chair
Order. The hon. Member for South Norfolk knows not to walk in front of me.
I apologise, Sir Alec.
There was a time not so long ago when we had a Government who said that they were obsessed with growth-that it was their core, underlying mission. Casting my mind back to that moment makes me feel old, but my goodness, what a long way we have travelled over the last almost two years. I say that because no Government who were obsessed with growth, no Government who were genuine about creating the economic conditions for prosperity that provide our public services with the resource they need, and no Government who were sincere about giving the young people of this nation the opportunity to find work and climb the ladder of opportunity would, in all seriousness, have introduced these measures. It belies their lack of knowledge of working in business, for they do not understand the stifling impact of piling regulation upon regulation and doubling the period of jeopardy for an employer at a time when, as the Minister acknowledged, our employment tribunals are drowning, deluged and failing. I suspect that hon. Members on both sides of the Committee have some appreciation, although maybe not the full horror, of what is going on right now in our employment tribunals. I would certainly like to hear more from the Minister and her officials about their plans to remedy a situation that we all should recognise as a crisis. To be fair, this did not all happen on the current Government’s watch. It dates back too many years, but it is getting worse by the week. The open caseload of single...
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Alec. The shadow Minister asked whether this is really what Members came here to do, and I can say that I genuinely and literally came to this place to do this, so I am delighted that we are doing it. I was one of the people who joined Pregnant Then Screwed in its #Givemesix campaign against maternity discrimination. I spent years practising in employment tribunals, and I saw very large numbers of women with maternity discrimination claims and people with discrimination claims of all types. There is a huge problem: 74,000 women a year are estimated to lose their job while they are pregnant or on maternity leave, over and above what would otherwise be expected for their demographic. This absolutely enormous problem is affecting our national productivity, with so many women falling out of the workplace after they have children. When women have just had a baby and suddenly lose their job, they have very limited money because statutory maternity pay is extremely limited-it is awful-so they cannot afford legal advice. They also have a tiny baby, so bringing legal proceedings is not something they are seeking to do. It often takes them a long time to seek advice about their situation. Women are regularly being ruled out of bringing perfectly legitimate claims for the widespread problem of discrimination. I gently remind the shadow Minister that his Government failed to recruit any employment tribunal judges from 2010 to 2018, and...
I thank the shadow Minister for his remarks and my hon. Friend the Member for Congleton for a brilliant and well-made speech about why this legislation is so important. Unfortunately, the shadow Minister conveniently missed out a couple of statistics in his opening remarks. I will start with the first one. Going back to historical statistics on the previous Government’s inability to fix and appropriately resource our employment tribunal, if we look at 2017 and 2018, the percentage increase year on year of the number of outstanding single cases reached a shocking 89%. From 2008 to 2018, the average time from receipt of a claim to the first hearing was stable at around 30 weeks. That increased to 49 weeks by early 2021. If we look at the stats published in 2023, employment tribunal delays had increased by 60% since 2010 due to resource shortages. I certainly do not want to go back to those targets, nor commit to them here today. These measures are absolutely necessary because they recognise the reality that many people need more time to understand what has happened to them, seek advice and prepare their claim properly, as my hon. Friend the Member for Congleton outlined. By creating a more realistic timeframe, they will reduce the risk of a rushed or missed claim and support fair access to justice. At the same time, they will give employers greater opportunity to engage early to resolve concerns and avoid unnecessary employment tribunal claims. The shadow Minister also asked...
Resolved,
That the Committee has considered the draft Employment Tribunal (Extension of Time Limits) (Miscellaneous Amendments and Transitional Provisions) Regulations 2026.
DRAFT EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS EXTENSION OF JURISDICTION (ENGLAND AND WALES) (AMENDMENT) ORDER 2026
Motion made, and Question put,
That the Committee has considered the draft Employment Tribunals Extension of Jurisdiction (England and Wales) (Amendment) Order 2026. - ( Kate Dearden.)
Committee rose.