Who benefits from increasing employment tribunal time limits?

You may have already heard of the Employment Rights Bill, the proposed legislative changes introduced by the new Labour government to update and amend current employment laws. The Bill includes significant changes, most of which aim to enhance employee rights.

One section of the Bill that has received less scrutiny is the plan to extend the time limit for filing an employment tribunal claim against an employer, increasing this from three to six months.

Currently, employees have three months (less one day) to bring most claims against their employer. The exception is a claim for redundancy pay, which allows six months.

The first step in the process is to contact Acas for ‘early conciliation’, a six-week process designed to help both parties settle the issue before a formal tribunal claim is filed. If the parties are unable to reach an agreement, the employee has at least one further month to formally file their claim at the tribunal.

Three months already gives an aggrieved employee a reasonable amount of time to reflect on how their employer has treated them and decide whether to pursue a claim. The government believes that extending this to six months will allow more time to resolve complaints before they escalate into claims.

However, it could also mean that more claims are filed; having more time to think about an issue may encourage more employees to bring a claim, whether they feel strongly about their treatment or not.

Current statistics show that Acas and the employment tribunal system are already under pressure. It’s not uncommon for a claim to take up to two years to reach a final hearing. The latest figures show why:

• Acas’s annual report for April 2024 to March 2025 confirmed a sharp rise in demand for its services, with an increase of 13,000 individual conciliation cases (totalling 117,000). Acas is already struggling to contact parties at an early stage of the six-week conciliation process, with initial contact sometimes delayed until the final days of the process
• His Majesty’s Courts & Tribunals Service (HMCTS) reported an 11% increase in employment tribunal claims in Q4 2025, compared to 2024.

While extending time limits may seem helpful for employees weighing up a claim, it could have unintended negative consequences:

1. It will take longer for Acas to start the early conciliation process, potentially reducing the chance of resolving the issue without the time, stress and cost of an employment tribunal claim.
2. Tribunal hearings will likely take even longer to be arranged. This means:

• • Claims take longer to resolve, again increasing time, stress and costs for both employers and employees
  • Fair hearings may become harder to achieve, as witnesses may have left the business in the time it takes the claim to be heard. Witnesses’ memories are also unlikely to improve over time, compromising the quality of the evidence.

The government has suggested this change to time limits will take effect in October 2026. But without significant investment in Acas and the tribunal system, it’s unclear what impact this will have on an employee’s access to justice.