§ Mr. Roseasked the Secretary of State for Employment what was the number of cases heard by industrial tribunals in each of the last five years; and what estimate he has made of the increase by reason of the provisions of the Industrial Relations Act.
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§ Mr. Chichester-Clark:The number of cases dealt with by the industrial tribunals during the last five years is as follows:
- 1967–8,496 (separate figure for number of hearings not available).
- 1968–12,113 (8,591 hearings).
- 1969–10,391 (7,720 hearings).
- 1970–11,482 (8,730 hearings).
- 1971–10,087 (7,391 hearings).
The tribunals' jurisdictions were extended under the Industrial Relations Act with effect from 28th February, 1972, and in the month ending 31st March, they received a total of over 1,200 applications. This represents an increase of almost 90 per cent. over the average number of applications received each month in the previous three months and the increase is largely attributable to the new jurisdictions established by the Industrial Relations Act. A projection of these first figures indicates an annual case load of the order of 14–15,000, but it is anticipated that the numbers will increase significantly (eventually perhaps to over 30,000 per year) as employees become more generally aware of their rights under the Act.
§ Mr. Roseasked the Secretary of State for Employment what provision has been made for increasing the number of industrial tribunals and their personnel consequent upon the passing of the Industrial Relations Act.
§ Mr. Chichester-Clark:The number of regional offices of the industrial tribunals has been increased from 8 to 15 and in addition 10 other Offices of the tribunals have been established in large towns. There have been increases in the numbers of lay members from 283 to 896, full-time chairmen from 10 to 27 and part-time chairmen from 44 to 66, together with equivalent increases in staffing.