Acas publishes quarterly statistics on early conciliation and employment tribunal cases.
When a worker wants to make a claim against their employer at an employment tribunal, in most cases they must notify Acas first. Acas offers early conciliation to try to reach an agreement between the worker and employer, and avoid the worker making a claim to an employment tribunal.
We have been publishing quarterly statistics since July 2023.
This data is produced from management information of numbers of early conciliation notifications registered with Acas. We have chosen not to publish the data as official statistics, but rather to voluntarily apply the UK Statistics Authority Code of Practice for Statistics. This data is consistent with management information used internally. But we do not feel it fully meets the requirements for official statistics yet. By applying the voluntary code of practice, we are working towards meeting the full criteria.
Applying the Code of Practice for Statistics helps to build public confidence in the statistics. This statement of compliance demonstrates how Acas is working towards the 3 pillars of the code:
- trustworthiness – having confidence in the people and organisations that produce statistics and data
- quality – data and methods that produce assured statistics
- value – publishing statistics that support society's needs for information
Trustworthiness
These statistics have been produced under the guidance of the Head of Statistics at Acas. This follows initial discussions with the deputy head of profession at the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) about the voluntary application of the code.
The statistics are collected and quality assured by Acas analysts. This includes analysts who are part of the government analytical professions.
This management information data is used internally for decision making. However, the data cut taken to produce these statistics and the aggregated statistics presented each quarter will not be shared with anyone outside of those involved in the production of the statistics. The exception to this is that the statistics are signed off by the head of Acas's individual dispute resolution service as a final QA for the work. Analysts at Acas oversee the production of the statistics to ensure they remain impartial. The responsible statistician gives final sign-off prior to publication.
Quality
Data has been gathered from a management information data source and quality assured by analysts in Acas to help minimise errors from issues such as double counting or mis-categorisation of cases. Full details of the QA process are set out in the background quality report.
The data presented is a true reflection of the management data held by Acas. These tables and charts have been produced in accordance with good analytical practice, following the Office for National Statistics (ONS) presenting data style guide.
The supporting methodology article and background quality report discuss the production of the statistics. They also cover some of the nuances of the data. For example, handling of multiple cases where several claimants raise the same case against an employer. This information increases transparency in our methods.
We're working towards using a 'reproducible analytical pipeline' (automated statistical and analytical processes) to produce these tables and reports. This will help us to comply more fully with the Code of Practice for Statistics.
An internal working group will be set up to discuss the future of these statistics. This is to ensure the quality remains as high as possible and that we are working more fully towards the code of practice.
Value
The statistics cover the main freedom of information (FOI) requests that are made to Acas. This enables us to provide as much value as possible.
We pre-emptively publish data that is likely to be requested. This helps to improve efficiency and meet the requirements of our users. It also reduces burden, by having one set of data that meets the needs of many users.
We've produced the statistics in a table format with breakdown by case category (or 'track'). We have also provided some visualisations of the data and linked open data spreadsheets. This helps us to make the data as usable and informative as possible. We have added more accessible visualisations and will work towards further breakdowns of the data in future.
We've produced an explanation of the statistics with the tables and charts. A glossary of terms is also included.
The figures and analysis presented will evolve over time to ensure they include the most relevant information and meet the needs of stakeholders. The working group will use feedback from our users and developments in analytical guidance to ensure they remain up to date.
We are the only organisation that is able to produce these statistics because early conciliation notifications are solely registered with Acas, and we believe it is right to share these publicly.
If you have questions about using Acas data, you can contact our analysts by emailing stats@acas.org.uk.