Clause 22 - Employment tribunals
Employment Bill
12:30 pm
Mr Alan Johnson (Minister of State (Employment and the Regions), Department of Trade and Industry; Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle, Labour)
Yes. I shall come to that, because I want to touch on the points about overlapping.
Under the current rules, parties can recover only costs—primarily legal costs—that they have actually incurred. There is no provision for litigants in person to recover their costs at tribunals, as is the case in civil courts and in employment appeal tribunals. There is no power to compensate a party for time spent preparing for a tribunal case. That makes little sense in a system that we say should not encourage legal representation.