To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, if he will make an assessment of the effect of the awarding of costs against claimants on the ability and willingness of people to bring claims for disability discrimination; and if he will make a statement.

There are currently no plans to assess the effect of cost orders on the ability and willingness of claimants to bring employment tribunal claims.

Costs orders are made at judicial discretion and are considered as exceptional rather than routine. HM Courts and Tribunals Service record data on the number of costs orders made in employment tribunals but there is no currently held data on the reasons they have been awarded. For the period April 2013 to March 2014 a total of 889 costs orders were awarded. 242 were awarded to the claimant and 647 to the respondent.