Change to ACAS Early Conciliation Period from the 1 December 2025

The Employment Tribunals (Early Conciliation: Exemptions and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 changes the current early conciliation period from six weeks to twelve weeks for all cases notified to ACAS after 1 December 2025.

It is the hope of the Government that this extension to the early conciliation period will help to alleviate the pressure on ACAS and ultimately reduce tribunal backlogs. Whilst at first glance, the change seems to give employers and employers double the time in which to resolve disputes via early conciliation, in reality, many employers are not receiving notification of the start of early conciliation until weeks after it has started and, in some cases, employers have reported not receiving any communication from ACAS until after early conciliation has been closed due to expiry of the current 6 week period. Unless ACAS is better resourced, it seems that the benefit of the full 12 weeks will not be felt by many employees and employers, but it might result in less employers being notified of ACAS early conciliation too late to make a difference.

As many of our readers will be aware, ACAS early conciliation is a pre-requisite to starting an employment tribunal claim. Starting ACAS early conciliation has the effect of “pausing the clock” on statutory limitation periods for bringing a claim. By increasing the period of early conciliation to 12 weeks, the legislation has, in effect, doubled the typical 3 month limitation period for most employment tribunal claims.

Under Government proposals to extend the statutory limitation period from three to six months (expected to take effect in October 2026) employees could, if the change remains after the scheduled review in the same month, have up to nine months to bring a claim. This would create longer periods of uncertainty for employers and could mean some claims are not heard at a full hearing until more than two (or more) years after the employee’s departure.

The advantage for employers is that, by the time claims are filed, employees may have mitigated their losses by securing alternative employment. This often makes them more receptive to settlement discussions, as their losses are clearer and there is less scope for disputes over potential future losses.

For employees, the extended timeframe provides greater opportunity to seek advice and prepare their claims thoroughly.

This article is for general information purposes only and does not constitute legal advice or a comprehensive statement of the law. Specific legal advice should always be sought in relation to individual circumstances.

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