Employment Tribunal Claims (2020)

Response

1. How many employment tribunal claims were initiated against the House of Commons. Please provide the figures per year for the following calendar years: 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016  I.e in 2018, 12 employment tribunal claims were initiated against the House of Commons.
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2. Please outline the reason the claims were initiated against the House of Commons I.e in 2018, 12 employment tribunal claims were initiated against the House of Commons. 2 related to disability discrimination, 2 related to unfair dismissal etc
   This information is held by the House of Commons. Please find the recorded the number of employment tribunal claims initiated against the House of Commons and the recorded reasons for each claim from 2016 – 2019 below. Please note that many of the claims brought against the House were brought for more than one reason;
   In 2016, one employment tribunal claim was initiated against the House of Commons. The recorded reason for this claim is considered exempt from disclosure by the House. This is because, owing to the low numbers of cases, disclosing this data may make it possible for individuals to be identified. This information is therefore exempt by virtue of section 40 (2) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), as disclosure of this information to the public generally, in the House's view, would not be consistent with data protection principles in Article 5 of the General Data Protection Regulations. This is an absolute exemption and the public interest test does not apply.
   In 2017, four employment tribunal claims were initiated against the House of Commons. Three related to breach of contract; two related to disability discrimination; one related to unlawful deduction from wages; one related to unfair dismissal; and one related to whistleblowing.
   In 2018, 11 employment tribunal claims were initiated against the House of Commons. Six related to Age, race, disability and sex discrimination; four related to unfair dismissal; two related to disability discrimination; two related to harassment based on race; two related to breach of contract; two related to detriment on grounds related to union membership; one related to whistleblowing and the details of one claim are not on file.
   In 2019, nine employment tribunal claim were initiated against the House of Commons. Seven related to disability discrimination; five related to unfair dismissal; one related to disability and gender harassment and victimisation, one related to sex discrimination and one related to “unfair discrimination.”
3. How many of these claims were upheld, with the tribunal ruling in the claimants favour. How much compensation was paid out to successful claimants. Please provide the figures per year for the following calendar years: 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016 I.e in 2018, 12 employment tribunal claims were initiated against the House of Commons.  6 claims were successful and 6 were dismissed. Of the 6 successful claims, 5 related to victimisation and 1 related to age discrimination. In total, £120,000 was paid out in compensation to the 6 successful claimants.
   This information is held by the House of Commons. No claims against the House of Commons have been upheld at tribunal from 2016 – 2019 and so no compensation was paid to “successful claimants.”
4. How much was spent by the House of Commons on legal costs throughout the tribunal process. Please provide the figures per year for the following calendar years: 2019, 2018, 2017 and 2016.  i.e in 2018, the House of Commons spent £20,000 on legal costs
   Some information to respond to your request is held by the House of Commons.

Please note initially that most of our tribunal claims are defended using our in house legal team. Their salaries cover a range of legal work including tribunal work, and the requested information cannot be disaggregated from these broader costs. Additional costs for tribunal are in relation to legal counsel or if we have not been able to carry out the work in house, in which case the House pays the Government Legal Department (GLD) for support we cannot otherwise provide. The costs for both counsel and GLD support in relation to employment tribunal claims are listed below:

Please note further that the House holds this information by financial year rather than calendar year, which is as follows:

• 2016/17 – £13,230
• 2017/18 – £31,908
• 2018/19 – £32,197
• 2019/20 (up to 28 February) – £28,880