This table compares the procedural rules (as attached) found in the Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations 2013 with the provisions of the Employment Tribunal Procedure Rules 2024 found in SI 2024 No 1155. The statutory instrument was laid before Parliament on 6 December 2024 and will come into force on 6 January 2025.
From that date the 2024 rules will apply to all cases in the Employment Tribunals in England & Wales and in Scotland.
Responsibility for making the procedural rules for Employment Tribunals, save in relation to national security matters, passed to the Tribunal Procedure Committee (“TPC”) on 25 April 2024 when the Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022 (Commencement No. 6) Regulations 2024 brought into force section 34 of and Schedule 5 to the Judicial Review and Courts Act 2022. The new provisions now form section 37QA of and Schedule A1 to the Employment Tribunals Act 1996.
In anticipation of this change the TPC issued a Consultation Paper on 3 April 2024. The TPC Reply to the Consultation was issued on 22 November 2024. The background to the 2024 rules, and the rationale for the changes, can be found in those documents. Responsibility for national security provisions passed to the Lord Chancellor at the same time. The procedural rules for such cases were found in schedule 2 to the 2013 regulations. The new statutory instrument is made jointly by the TPC and Lord Chancellor and the national security rules now form schedule 1 to it.
Most of the changes to the wording of the rules are required in order to meet the drafting standards for a new statutory instrument. The provisions about time limits for health and safety and Energy Act appeals (2013 rules 105 and 106 respectively) are to be moved into the 2013 regulations (new regulations 14A and 14B respectively) as the TPC has no power to prescribe such time limits.NUTBROWN
