Employment Tribunal Backlog: What It Means for Your Business in 2026

Employment tribunals are more backed up than at any point in recent memory. Tens of thousands of cases are currently waiting to be heard, and wait times for claims like unfair dismissal or discrimination now commonly stretch beyond a year. With the Employment Rights Act expected to widen who can bring a claim and when, the pressure on the system is only set to grow. Here’s what that means in practice for UK SME employers.

Why the backlog matters even if you never plan to end up in a tribunal

Most employers never intend to face a tribunal claim — but the backlog changes your risk profile regardless:

• Cases drag on for longer. A claim that once took a few months to resolve can now take well over a year, keeping the matter — and the management time it absorbs — open far longer than expected.
• Evidence degrades. Witnesses leave the business, memories fade, and contemporaneous notes become harder to locate the further a case runs from the events in question.
• Costs creep up. Legal fees, management time and the ongoing uncertainty all add up the longer a case remains unresolved.
• More claims are coming. As Employment Rights Act reforms extend rights such as day-one unfair dismissal protection, the volume of claims reaching tribunals is widely expected to rise further.

Where the risk really sits

The backlog doesn’t create legal risk on its own — poor process does. The employers most exposed are typically the ones without clear, documented processes for dismissals, disciplinaries, grievances and redundancies. When a claim is lodged eighteen months after the event, a business with thin paperwork has far less to fall back on than one with a clear audit trail.

Practical steps to reduce your exposure

1. Document everything, as it happens. Meeting notes, warnings, and decision rationale should be recorded at the time, not reconstructed later.
2. Resolve issues early. Many claims stem from grievances or disciplinaries that escalated because they weren’t handled promptly or fairly the first time. ACAS early conciliation is worth using proactively, not just when a claim is already threatened.
3. Train managers on process, not just policy. Most tribunal-worthy mistakes happen at the point a manager handles a dismissal or grievance conversation badly, not because the written policy was wrong.
4. Keep retention periods realistic given the backlog. If a claim can be brought and then take over a year to resolve, your records need to survive well beyond your current retention assumptions.
5. Get HR support before you need it. Reactive HR support after a dismissal has gone wrong is far more expensive — in both cash and stress — than getting the process right from the outset.

The tribunal backlog isn’t going away soon, but the businesses that come out of it unscathed are the ones with strong day-to-day HR processes, not the ones hoping never to be tested.

How can PeopleFirstHR Help?

Want a second opinion before a dismissal or disciplinary goes ahead? Contact us to arrange a chat with the WorkNest advisory team.