In depth: Hidden backlogs at the tribunals

There was some rancour last month when the justice secretary Shabana Mahmood, in her first Labour party conference speech in her new role, omitted to mention courts.

The criminal court backlog remains historically high, with large numbers of people kept incarcerated on remand as a result. The court estate itself is decrepit and in need of renewal.

But while few would argue those issues do not need addressing, a hidden crisis in our justice sector affects vast numbers of UK citizens: tribunals. Tribunal cases, whether it be employment, immigration, special needs or social security, disproportionately affect the poorest people but rarely get media coverage. Yet the numbers are startling, and the system is creaking under the weight of outstanding cases.

Last week the Ministry of Justice published its latest quarterly statistics for the tribunals system. The period covered April to June this year, neatly bookmarking the dying days of the Conservative government.

The headline figures across various jurisdictions show that often the number of cases being disposed of has increased, but not at the same pace as the number of cases received. The result is that the total open caseload had risen by 4% to 668,000 by the end of June. As house-warming presents go, for Labour it was an unwelcome one.

In the Social Security and Child Support (SSCS) Tribunal, the number of new cases increased by 8% and the number of disposals fell by 4%. The result was that open cases increased by 12% to 79,000. Such a backlog leaves many people who might expect to win their appeal waiting longer on that outcome – and deprived of the state benefits they are entitled to. Of the 29,000 disposals in the first quarter of this year, 61% were cleared at a hearing and of these, 60% had the initial decision revised in favour of the claimant.

Of those cases disposed of by the SSCS tribunal from April to June 2024, the mean age of a case was 35 weeks, an eight-week increase compared with the same period in 2023.

The immigration debate has featured heavily in the media all summer but the statistics underlying the issue are rarely discussed. New cases in the First-tier Tribunal Immigration and Asylum Chamber (FTTIAC) fell steeply in 2020/21 due to the impact of the pandemic but have started to rise since.

New claims relating to asylum/protection quadrupled this year to 9,300, while human rights receipts were up by 15% to 4,500. Disposals overall fell during the quarter by 9% to 9,300. In the FTTIAC, the mean time taken to clear appeals across all categories was 43 weeks in the latest quarter, two weeks longer compared with the same period a year ago.

In the employment tribunal, the open caseload had reached 37,000 for single claims by the end of June. This was down from a peak of 44,000 since 2020/21 but still represented an 18% annual rise.

In Q1, the employment tribunal received 10,000 single claim receipts and disposed of 7,000 single claim cases. More multiple claims were made than disposed of.

The resultant delays in securing a hearing are only likely to increase under Labour’s employment law reforms unveiled this week.

The biggest challenge appears to be the surge in cases coming through the Special Educational Needs and Disposals (SEND) Tribunal. More than 4,500 appeals were dealt with during the period – the highest number on record – but the number of new cases increased by 78% to 5,800 in this quarter, meaning the backlog rose 61% to 9,200.

The Law Society said that delays and backlogs are the result of decades of under-investment in the justice system. ‘People are having to wait far too long for justice across the system,’ observed Law Society president Richard Atkinson. ‘Plans to improve workers’ rights will be undermined if they can’t get swift justice in the employment tribunals because there are huge backlogs and not enough judges and lawyers to do the work.

‘Likewise, efforts to tackle the asylum backlog will fail unless legal aid rates are improved to ensure there are enough lawyers to do the work.’

Funding is surely the answer, but it would be a surprise if the chancellor throws money at the justice system in her autumn budget later this month. Without such investment, there appears little hope of turning around these figures.

A Ministry of Justice spokesperson said: ‘The government inherited a crisis in our criminal justice system and a tribunals backlog at soaring levels. While we are bound by a challenging financial inheritance, this government is fully committed to tackling backlogs across the justice system. We are now beginning this work and are investing in the recruitment of approximately 1,000 judges and tribunal members.’