HC Deb 29 January 1980 vol 977 cc561-3W
Mr. Greville Janner

asked the Secretary of State for Employment how many, and what percentage, of claimants and of

Applicant Legally No. of cases Represented % of cases Applicant Trade No. of cares Union Represented % of cases
October 1977 … … … 515 33 242 16
October 1978 … … … 447 34 209 16
October 1979 … … … 468 37 186 15

Information is not available for earlier years or on the outcome of these cases. My Department has estimated, however,

become available shortly and I shall send them to the hon. Member.

respondents, respectively, in unfair dismissal or redundancy claims brought before industrial tribunals have been legally represented; how many claimants have been represented by trade union officials, in industrial tribunal proceedings for unfair dismissal or redundancy, during each year since 1971 for which records are available; and in how many and what percentage of such cases the claimant or respondent represented in this way succeeded.

Mr. Mayhew

The Central Office of the Industrial Tribunals (England and Wales) has collected figures on representation of applicants at tribunal hearings under all jurisdictions for the month of October in the three years 1977–1979. These are as follows:

from a small sample of unfair dismissal cases in 1978, that applicants were successful in approximately 35 per cent.

of cases in which they had legal representation and 20 per cent. of cases in which they were represented by their trade union.

The corresponding information on the legal representation of respondents before tribunals is as follows:

Central Office of the Industrial Tribunals Respondent Legally No. of cases Represented percentage of cases
October 1977 754 49
October 1978 707 53
October 1979 681 54

The Department of Employment sample of unfair dismissal cases in 1978 suggests that respondents with legal representation were successful in 73 per cent. of cases.