§ Michael FabricantTo ask the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry what the total cost to UK businesses was of industrial tribunal cases concerned with(a) disability, (b) sex and (c) race discrimination in each of the last five years. [143831]
§ Mr. SutcliffeThe Department does not hold statistics on the costs to employers of having an Employment Tribunal claim made against them under the main jurisdictions of disability, sex and race discrimination in each of the last five years.
However, the estimated average cost per Employment Tribunal application to employers for all jurisdictions, including legal fees, management time and other staff time, is about £2,000. Not all applications registered will lead to a Tribunal hearing. The table below shows the number of claims each year by the main jurisdictions of disability, sex and race discrimination, each multiplied by £2,000 to give the estimated costs to employers, rounded to two significant figures.
£ million 1998–99 1999–2000 2000–01 2001–02 2002–03 Disability discrimination 2.9 3.5 4.2 5.2 5.4 Sex discrimination 12 9.9 34 20 16 Race discrimination 5.5 6.5 6.9 6.4 6.1 These estimates will be on the low side since discrimination applications tend to be more complicated and hence require more staff time and higher legal fees than the average application.