Employment tribunal award statistics published - 2023/2024

The annual employment tribunal award statistics cover the period from April 2023 to March 2024 ("the 23/24 reporting period") and, as always, make for very interesting reading. 

The headline statistic is that the total number of claims has increased from 86,000 to 97,000, an increase of nearly 13%.  It is anticipated that the number of claims will continue to increase over the coming years, not least due to the new rights that will be brought into force via the Employment Rights Bill.

The highest award made in the 23/24 reporting period was £995,128 and was made in a sex discrimination case, albeit there seems to have been a glitch in the statistics last year, as this was the same figure that was reported as the maximum award last year. The same figure for last year is now showing as being £419,353.The second highest award was £964,465 made in a disability discrimination case.   A significant award of £431,768 was also made in a race discrimination case.

The highest award in an unfair dismissal claim in the 23/24 reporting period is £179,124. While unfair dismissal claims are usually subject to a statutory cap, this case will have been one of the exceptions where the cap does not apply (i.e. whistleblowing or health and safety related dismissals). The median award for unfair dismissal claims is only £6,746. The average unfair dismissal award during the 23/24 reporting period was £13,749.

The table below shows the maximum, median and average awards for unfair dismissal and discrimination claims for the reporting period. The average award for age discrimination jumps out as being surprisingly high but the explanation for this is that it is based on there being only 12 awards of compensation for age discrimination during the relevant period. As such, the data set is very small and of those 12 awards, six of them were over £50,000. By way of comparison, the unfair dismissal figures in the table below are based on there having been 646 awards of compensation for unfair dismissal claims during the relevant period.

It should, of course, always be remembered that the vast majority of employment disputes are settled without a tribunal claim being raised, so that they do not form part of the data set which has led to these statistics. Of those disputes that settled, many will have settled for well in excess of the average and median figures, and it is likely that there will have been settlements well in excess of £1 million.

Costs awards are still relatively rare in employment tribunals. In the 23/24 reporting period, 192 cost awards were made with 153 made in favour of respondents and 39 in favour of claimants. The maximum costs award made was £72,386, down from £174,141 last year, but the median costs award is significantly lower at £3,000.

Maximum, Median and Average Awards for Unfair Dismissal and Discrimination 2023/2024

The full report is available here (see Employment Tribunal and Employment Appeal Tribunal Tables 2023 to 2024).