It has now been just over a year since it became mandatory for the parties to use ACAS EC before proceeding with a claim before the Employment Tribunal save for in limited circumstances where the exceptions apply.

ACAS have now published their annual report setting out how they have got on in the first year.  It is packed full of statistics for those that love such data but for the rest of you a snapshot of the stats are as follows:

• Claimants reported that in 18% of cases a settlement was reached through ACAS EC.  Oddly respondents reported this figure at 29% of cases.
• Claimants reported that in 45% of cases no settlement was reached.  Oddly Respondents reported this figure at 53% of cases.
• The majority of those that reached settlement were fast track cases.  Here the majority of the payments made under the settlement were less than £1,000.
• In 46% of cases which didn’t settle claimants said this was because the employer did not want to use the service or they felt that there was no case to answer.

You can read the full report here.