Employment law insights
ACAS Early Conciliation period doubled
A necessary logistic change is likely to lead to far-reaching consequences. Before bringing an Employment Tribunal claim, a prospective claimant must contact ACAS to start a period of ‘Early Conciliation’. The deadline for the individual to start this process is typically 3 months after the date of the act to which the potential claim relates.
During Early Conciliation, an ACAS conciliator acts as a go-between to explore whether settlement is possible.
Until recently, this process ended automatically after six weeks (unless terminated earlier by either party). However, due to the burden of claims, there have been significant delays in ACAS getting involved, leaving little time for meaningful settlement discussions.
In order to address this issue, the maximum early conciliation period was doubled to twelve weeks with effect from 1 December 2025.
This change should provide parties with more time to try to resolve matters without the need for litigation, which is to be welcomed.
However, because Early Conciliation extends Tribunal deadlines, another consequence of the change is that claims may end up being submitted up to seven months after the events giving rise to the claim in question (three months for the claimant to contact ACAS; up to 12 weeks of Early Conciliation; followed by a further month to bring the claim).
This delay is exacerbated by the fact that the basic limitation period for a potential claimant to bring an Employment Tribunal claim will also be doubled (from three to six months) with effect from October 2026. Given that tribunals sometimes don’t serve claims on respondents for up to two months after issue, this could mean that claims are not served until up to a year after the relevant complaint.
This will inevitably affect witnesses recollections and the preservation of evidence, and potentially render it much more difficult for employers to properly defend claims.