Employment Tribunal Contact Details: Phone, Address & Online Claims

At a glance

• Central enquiry line (England and Wales): 0300 323 0196, Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm (checked against GOV.UK on 20 July 2026)
• Welsh language line: 0300 303 5176
• Relay UK (if you cannot hear or speak on the phone): 18001 then 0300 323 0196
• Online claim service: claim-employment-tribunals.service.gov.uk
• Postal address (England and Wales): Employment Tribunal Central Office, PO Box 11225, Crown House, Loughborough, LE11 9PX
• Can't find a specific regional office? Use the live GOV.UK court and tribunal finder — office details change and this page will always show the current position, which a static list cannot guarantee
• No tribunal fee: confirmed on GOV.UK — fees were abolished following the Supreme Court's ruling in R (UNISON) v Lord Chancellor [2017] UKSC 51
• Mandatory first step for most claims: notify Acas before lodging your ET1 — you'll usually need an Acas early conciliation certificate
• Time limit today: 3 months (minus 1 day) from the date your employment ended or the problem occurred, paused while Acas conciliation is ongoing — this is scheduled to change to 6 months for most claims from October 2026 under the Employment Rights Act 2025, but that change is not yet in force

What the Employment Tribunal is and what it decides

Employment Tribunals are independent judicial bodies that resolve disputes between workers and employers. They sit outside the ordinary civil courts and apply a procedural framework designed to be more accessible, though the legal issues they determine can be complex.

The tribunal is administered by HM Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS) and hears claims from people who believe an employer, a potential employer, or a trade union has treated them unlawfully, under the framework set out in the Employment Tribunals Act 1996 and the Employment Tribunals (Constitution and Rules of Procedure) Regulations. A hearing is typically chaired by an Employment Judge sitting alone, or alongside two lay members depending on the type of claim.

Common types of claim include:

• Unfair dismissal — where an employee says their employer did not have a fair reason to dismiss them, or did not follow a fair procedure
• Discrimination — based on protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 (age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation)
• Unlawful deduction from wages — where pay, holiday pay, or other contractual sums have not been paid
• Whistleblowing — where a worker has suffered a detriment after making a protected disclosure
• Redundancy pay disputes — where a statutory redundancy payment has not been made or is disputed
• Breach of contract — for certain contract claims arising on or after termination of employment

England and Wales share a single tribunal system with a central processing office. Scotland has separate contact arrangements (see below) but applies the same substantive employment law framework, and Northern Ireland has an entirely separate industrial tribunal system.

How to contact the Employment Tribunal

A note on accuracy: contact details for public bodies do change — offices merge, numbers are reassigned, opening hours shift. The details below were checked directly against GOV.UK's current published guidance on 20 July 2026. If you're reading this later, or your situation involves a specific case number, always cross-check using the live GOV.UK court and tribunal finder rather than relying solely on any single article, including this one.

Central enquiry line (England and Wales)

For general enquiries, questions about how the online service works, and technical help:

Telephone: 0300 323 0196 Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm Welsh language: 0300 303 5176 Relay UK (if you cannot hear or speak on the phone): 18001 then 0300 323 0196

These lines handle process and administrative questions. They cannot give legal advice about whether a claim is likely to succeed, and staff cannot discuss the substance of a live case in detail — for that, you need the office actually handling your claim.

Scotland enquiry line

Employment tribunals in Scotland have a separate customer contact centre:

Telephone: 0300 790 6234 Relay UK: 18001 then 0300 790 6234

If you have a live case number

If you have a claim reference number and want to speak to the specific office handling your case, use the GOV.UK court and tribunal finder to identify the current regional contact. We are not publishing a list of individual regional office addresses and numbers on this page, because HMCTS has restructured tribunal offices before and a static list can silently go out of date — the live finder is always the authoritative source.

Postal address (England and Wales)

If you are submitting a paper ET1 claim form or sending correspondence by post:

Employment Tribunal Central Office (England and Wales) PO Box 11225 Crown House Loughborough LE11 9PX

You can also deliver a paper form in person to a main Employment Tribunal office — check current locations via the GOV.UK court and tribunal finder before travelling.

If you need help using the online service

If you do not have internet access, or you are not confident using online services, a free assisted digital support service is available (checked against GOV.UK on 20 July 2026):

We Are Group Telephone: 03300 160 051 (Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, closed on bank holidays) Email: support@wearegroup.com Or text FORM to 60777 and someone will call you back

No fee to make a claim

There is currently no fee to submit an Employment Tribunal claim. Tribunal fees were introduced in 2013 but were abolished on 26 July 2017 following the Supreme Court's judgment in R (UNISON) v Lord Chancellor [2017] UKSC 51. The Court held unanimously that the fees unlawfully prevented access to justice.

GOV.UK's current "Make a claim" guidance confirms this in plain terms: "You do not have to pay a fee to make a claim to an employment tribunal." Fees paid under the old 2013 order remain eligible for a refund under the scheme described at gov.uk/employment-tribunals/refund-tribunal-fees if you have not already claimed.

You may still incur other costs in connection with a claim — for example, expenses for witnesses you ask to attend, the cost of any legal representation you choose to instruct, or, in limited circumstances, a costs order if the tribunal finds you have conducted proceedings unreasonably. But the issue fee itself is zero, and there is no current proposal in force to reintroduce one.

Step 1: Notify Acas — the mandatory step before most ET claims

Before you can submit an ET1 claim form in most cases, you must first notify Acas (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service).

When you notify Acas, they will offer early conciliation — a free, confidential process in which an Acas conciliator contacts both parties to explore whether a settlement can be reached without a tribunal hearing. Taking part in conciliation is voluntary — either side can decline — but the notification step itself is not optional in the great majority of cases, and you will generally need an Acas early conciliation certificate for each respondent before you can proceed to the tribunal.

GOV.UK sets out a small number of situations where you do not need to notify Acas first, including where:

• you're making the claim together with someone else who has already been through early conciliation for the same matter
• the respondent has already notified Acas and you can evidence this
• you are claiming only for unfair dismissal and applying for interim relief as part of that claim (see below) — though you will still need to notify Acas for any other claims made at the same time
• Acas does not have the power to conciliate on some or all of your claim

If you are unsure whether an exception applies, notify Acas before submitting your claim.

What notification does to your time limit

Notifying Acas pauses your time limit for the period of early conciliation. Once you receive your early conciliation certificate, GOV.UK confirms you will have at least one month left to make your claim — even if the standard 3-month period would otherwise have already run out. If there is more than one respondent, Acas issues a separate certificate for each one.

How to notify Acas

Notification is done online at acas.org.uk/notify. Full guidance on how early conciliation works is at acas.org.uk/early-conciliation.

Interim relief — a much shorter deadline

If you are claiming unfair dismissal and you believe the real reason for your dismissal was trade union activities, acting as a workers' representative, or whistleblowing, you may be able to apply for interim relief — asking the tribunal to order that your employment continues (or your pay continues) until the case is decided. This has a much tighter deadline than the standard claim: you must make the application within 7 days of dismissal, and you do not need to notify Acas first unless you are also bringing other claims at the same time.

Step 2: Understand your time limit

Employment Tribunal time limits are strict, and missing them will usually end a claim before it begins. The tribunal has only limited discretion to accept a late claim, and that discretion is defined precisely in law — it is not a general "fairness" test.

The position today: 3 months (minus 1 day)

For most claims, the current time limit is 3 months minus 1 day:

• Unfair dismissal: 3 months from the effective date of termination (Employment Rights Act 1996, s.111(2)(a))
• Discrimination: 3 months from the date of the act complained of, or the last in a series of related acts (Equality Act 2010, s.123(1)(a))
• Unlawful deduction from wages / holiday pay and most other ERA 1996 claims: 3 months from the relevant date

How to calculate the deadline: add 3 calendar months to the relevant date, then subtract 1 day. For example, if your employment ended on 1 April, the 3-month point is 1 July, so the deadline is 30 June.

The Acas conciliation period pauses the clock. Section 207B of the Employment Rights Act 1996 extends the time limit to account for the period spent in early conciliation, and — as set out above — GOV.UK confirms you'll have at least one month left once your certificate is issued. Always notify Acas well before your deadline, not at the last moment.

The limited exceptions to a late claim

The tribunal can only accept a claim presented after the deadline in narrow, legally defined circumstances:

• Unfair dismissal — the tribunal must be satisfied it was "not reasonably practicable" for the claim to have been presented in time, and that it was then presented within a further period the tribunal considers reasonable (Employment Rights Act 1996, s.111(2)(b)). This is a demanding test, not a general excuse.
• Discrimination — the tribunal may allow a late claim only where it thinks it is "just and equitable" to extend time (Equality Act 2010, s.123(1)(b)). This gives tribunals somewhat wider discretion than the unfair dismissal test, but it is still not automatic, and the burden is on the claimant to persuade the tribunal.

Do not treat either test as a safety net. Both require you to positively persuade the tribunal, and many otherwise strong claims are lost purely on lateness.

A change is coming, but it is not yet law

The Employment Rights Act 2025 (an Act of Parliament that has already received Royal Assent) contains a provision — section 152, giving effect to Schedule 12 — that will extend the time limit for most Employment Tribunal claims from 3 months to 6 months. This covers a wide range of claim types, including unfair dismissal (Employment Rights Act 1996, s.111) and discrimination (Equality Act 2010, s.123), but it does not extend to breach of contract claims, which are dealt with under separate legislation and are expected to remain subject to the 3-month (minus 1 day) limit.

As at 20 July 2026, this change is not yet in force. Acas's own published guidance confirms the change "will happen in October 2026." Section 152 is drafted so that it only comes into force once the government makes separate commencement regulations — several tranches of commencement regulations for other parts of the Act have already been made in 2026, but section 152 had not been brought into force as of this check. Until it is, and until the commencement date has actually passed, the current 3-month limit continues to apply. If your claim is close to the 3-month deadline before October 2026, do not assume the 6-month limit protects you — check the current position on GOV.UK or with Acas before relying on any extended deadline.

Step 3: Submit the claim (ET1) online or by post

Once you have your Acas certificate number, you can submit your ET1 claim form.

Online (recommended)

The official online claim service is at:

claim-employment-tribunals.service.gov.uk

Before you start, make sure you have to hand:

• The names and addresses of all claimants
• The full name and address of each respondent (employer) — found on your contract, payslip, or job offer letter
• Your Acas early conciliation certificate number for each respondent

The online service saves your progress as you go. If you have already started a claim, you can return to it using the "return to an existing claim" option. If you want to claim alongside others who have been treated in the same way, use Form ET1A (the multiple-claimant form), available from GOV.UK.

By post

Download and complete Form ET1 from GOV.UK and send it to the central office address above. Paper forms are processed more slowly than online submissions.

After you submit: what happens next

Once a claim is accepted by the tribunal, several things happen:

1. The respondent is served. GOV.UK confirms the respondent usually has to reply to your claim in writing within 28 days of receiving the ET1, using form ET3.
2. Case management. A preliminary hearing or written case management order will usually follow, setting a timetable for disclosing documents, exchanging witness statements, and listing the final hearing.
3. Conciliation can continue. Even after a claim is issued, Acas can help the parties reach a settlement at any point up to and including the hearing.
4. The final hearing. Both parties present their case to the Employment Judge (and lay members if the case requires them). You'll normally get at least 14 days' notice of the hearing date. The tribunal then issues a written decision, which is usually published on GOV.UK.

If you win but the respondent does not pay, GOV.UK sets out enforcement options, including asking the government to fine and publicly name the respondent, or using the Fast Track scheme to instruct a high court enforcement officer.

Representation and assistance

Employment Tribunals were designed to be accessible to people without lawyers. Many claimants appear as litigants in person, and tribunal judges are experienced in managing proceedings with unrepresented parties.

That said, employment law is technical. Judges expect claims to be pleaded correctly, evidence to be organised, and procedural directions to be complied with. Options short of full representation include:

• Free advice from Citizens Advice, your trade union, or a law centre
• Employment tribunal guidance published by GOV.UK and Acas covering each stage of the process
• Paid legal advice at key stages — many employment solicitors and advisers offer fixed-fee consultations, which can be a cost-effective way to sense-check a claim, understand the merits, or prepare for a hearing without instructing a lawyer throughout

This guide provides general information about contacting Employment Tribunals and the claims process in England and Wales. It is not legal advice on your specific circumstances, and reading it does not create a solicitor–client relationship. LegalDocuments.co.uk is not a law firm and is not regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Contact details, time limits, and the position on the Employment Rights Act 2025 reforms were checked against GOV.UK and legislation.gov.uk on 20 July 2026 and are subject to change — always verify current details on GOV.UK before relying on them, particularly around the October 2026 change to time limits.

Checked against GOV.UK: 20 July 2026 · Next review due: October 2026, or sooner if the Employment Rights Act 2025 time-limit change is brought into force earlier.