HC Deb 27 October 1992 vol 212 cc588-9W
Mr. Gerrard

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment (1) if she intends to take any action to speed up the hearing of industrial tribunal cases at London, North;

(2) how many industrial tribunals were lodged each year in the area covered by London, North industrial tribunals, Woburn place for the period 1987–1991; what proportion of these proceeded to hearing; what number are settled; and what number were withdrawn before hearing;

(3) what is the average time between the lodgement of an industrial tribunal IT1 form, and its being heard at London, North tribunals each year for the period 1987 to 1991.

Mr. McLoughlin

The listing of industrial tribunal cases for hearing depends on the availability of tribunal chairmen and I am informed that there has recently been a shortage of chairmen in the London, North region. Appointment of chairmen is the responsibility of my right hon. and noble Friend the Lord Chancellor and in an effort to improve the situation, five new chairmen—one full time and four part time—have been appointed in the past six months. I understand that further appointments are under consideration. London, North has also adopted an intensive case listing policy in an effort to accelerate the throughput of cases.

Tribunal statistics are held for financial rather than calendar years and the tables have been compiled on that basis. The number of applications lodged at London, North is shown in table 1. Table 2 shows the outcomes of cases dealt with. I regret that information on the waiting time between a claim being lodged and heard is not available in the precise form requested. The figures in table 3 show the percentage of applications coming to first hearing within six, eight, 10, 12, 20 and 26 weeks respectively of receipt of the application.

Table 3
Waiting time for cases to come to first hearing
Percentage under (weeks)
6 8 10 12 16 20 26
1 April 1991–31 March 1992 1 2 10 17 34 53 75
1 April 1990–31 March 1991 1 6 13 23 46 61 77
1 April 1989–31 March 1990 5 19 31 44 65 75 85
1 April 1988–31 March 1989 4 15 26 36 49 79 91
1 April 1987–31 March 1988 10 26 41 54 71 83 90