Employment & Pensions Blog: The Government Doubles the Acas Early Conciliation Period

Earlier this week the Government (very quietly) made a significant procedural change in the Employment Tribunal process. From 1 December 2025, the maximum period for Acas Early Conciliation will increase from six to twelve weeks.  

Acas Early Conciliation

Businesses and HR Professionals will be familiar with the process of Acas Early Conciliation; before a prospective claimant can submit a claim in the Employment Tribunal they must contact Acas who will work with the parties to see if a settlement can be reached as an alternative to litigation. If a settlement isn’t possible, or the respondent declines early conciliation, Acas issues an Early Conciliation Certificate which has a number on it needed for the ET1 form to make a claim in the Employment Tribunal.

Our blog has previously discussed the increasing number of Employment Tribunal claims that has resulted in a significant backlog of cases in the Employment Tribunals. These problems have now reached Acas, with many employers discovering the Acas process has been triggered only after the six week early conciliation period has ended. 

Clearly it defeats the purpose of an early conciliation process that’s designed to affect a settlement if the employer only finds out about it after it has ended. The Government’s solution is to double the conciliation period to twelve weeks to give Acas the time it needs to manage their backlog. Which will have damaging repercussions for respondents and claimants alike. 

Separately, in the Employment Rights Bill, the Government plans to double the amount of time that claimants have to submit Employment Tribunal claims from three to six months. Putting these two extensions together, the twelve week Acas Early Conciliation period plus the six months claimants will have to claim, will mean that businesses won’t know whether a claim has been submitted until at least nine months after the event. If there are delays in Employment Tribunals processing the claim forms, which is very common, it could easily be the best part of a year (or more) before businesses find out about the claim. We have already experienced clients who have received notice of a claim where the claim form was filed with the Tribunal over a year before. Unfortunately, we expect this, given the above, to become more common.

Comment

The Government doubling both the Acas Early Conciliation period and the time claimants have to submit claims is symptomatic of a crumbling system. Whilst the Government believes that extending these periods will give greater opportunity for settlement, we are sceptical that will be the result. 

Businesses already face the big problem of their witnesses leaving employment before the case gets to trial, and these time extensions will only serve to exacerbate that problem. It also negatively impacts the quality of evidence, because witness memory fades over time. Equally, (as the maxim goes) justice delayed is justice denied, and it really doesn’t help claimants to keep increasing these time periods thereby making it take longer to get their case to court.        

The change to a twelve-week Acas Early Conciliation process comes into effect on 1 December 2025. If businesses or perspective claimants require any assistance with Acas or Employment Tribunal claims, please contact a member of our Employment Team.