The Government on 5 November 2025 published a draft of “The Employment Tribunals (Early Conciliation: Exemptions and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2025”.
These Regulations are due to come into force from 1st December 2025. They would increase the ACAS early conciliation window from six weeks to twelve weeks. It will apply from 1st December 2025 for all claims where early conciliation is commenced on or after that date.
The concern for Employers is that ACAS’s early conciliation function is overstretched, and isn’t managing to contact Employers at all during the current (6 week) conciliation period, so this change, when combined with the Employment Rights Bill’s proposals to extend the primary tribunal time limit to six months, is likely to result in Employers being unaware of a potential claim against them by an Employee for nine months, or even, with administrative delays at the Employment Tribunal up to a year.