Justice written question – answered at on 5 March 2012.
To ask the Secretary of State for Justice
(1) what assessment he has made of the likely ongoing costs of collection of fees in the employment tribunal system (a) in total and (b) as a proportion of estimated fee income;
(2) what estimate he has made of the (a) IT and (b) other start-up costs of implementing a system to collect his proposed fees in the employment tribunal system;
(3) what steps he plans to take to ensure access to justice for vulnerable people if fees for employment tribunals are introduced.
The information requested is as follows:
Depending on which proposal is implemented, the initial impact assessment accompanying the fee-charging consultation estimated the ongoing cost of fee collection at £1-2 million per annum. The annual revenue after remissions has been estimated at £10-14 million respectively. All figures are quoted in 2011-12 prices,
Therefore, as a proportion, initial estimates suggest that ongoing costs represent in the region of some 10-15% of the initial annual fee income.
The initial impact assessment accompanying the fee-charging consultation estimated the total cost of implementation at £2 million at 2011-12 prices. A detailed breakdown of the various cost sub-categories is not available at this stage of policy development.
The Government will ensure that their obligations to protect access to justice under article 6 of the European convention on human rights are fully adhered to when presenting their final proposals to Parliament.
The consultation paper proposes to adopt the civil courts remission system of England and Wales so as to protect access to justice for those individuals who cannot afford to pay the proposed tribunal user fees, and the Government have invited comment on whether respondents believe that remission system fulfils those aims. A final decision on how the remission system will work will be made following consultation.
An initial equality impact assessment was published alongside the consultation and can be found on the Ministry of Justice website at:
Yes3 people think so
No3 people think not
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