Government doubles acas Early Conciliation from six to twelve weeks. Is this good news? If so, who benefits?
Government doubles acas Early Conciliation from six to twelve weeks. Is this good news? If so, who benefits?
With effect from 1 December 2025, the acas Early Conciliation period will be extended from a maximum of six to twelve weeks.
This will give employers and employees more time to negotiate a settlement without recourse to legal proceedings. Sounds good, doesn’t it? But who benefits really, and who is more likely to be disadvantaged?
The process
At present an employee (or former employee) must apply for acas Early Conciliation (acas EC) before the original time limit expires relating to their claim e.g. unfair dismissal or unlawful discrimination. The primary time limit for many employment claims is three months less one day from the date of the act complained of.
Upon application for acas EC, an employee can simply (i) request the acas EC certificate or (ii) confirm to acas EC that they wish to engage in settlement negotiations. If the latter, the acas EC officer will contact the employer. If the employer wishes to engage in settlement negotiations, acas EC will continue for a maximum of currently six weeks (soon to be twelve weeks) from the date of application during which time the acas EC officer helps the parties to negotiate a resolution. If no resolution is agreed by the end of the current six-week (soon to be twelve-week) period, or earlier, at any time the employer or employee indicate they do not wish to continue with negotiations, acas EC will issue the acas Early Conciliation certificate.
After the acas EC certificate is issued, the employee, using the acas EC certificate number, will have a short, extended period within which to submit their employment tribunal claim. Often, the period is one month from the date of the acas EC certificate but it can be shorter or longer. There is a lot of case law surrounding acas EC and time limits, relating to both the date of applying for acas Early Conciliation (particularly where there are multiple claims and/or ongoing conduct) and the date the acas EC certificate is issued.
Who benefits?
Currently the acas Early Conciliation service is swamped and cannot deal with the volume of applications promptly. It can take weeks for an acas EC officer to contact both parties, leaving little practical time to negotiate before the six-week period expires. The result may be no resolution, a settlement that does not reflect the merits of the potential claims, and another tribunal claim being launched. The extension to a twelve-week period may relieve pressure on the acas Early Conciliation Service and the Tribunals, which are also swamped and suffering from a significant backlog and delays.
Whilst in theory a twelve-week period will leave some more time for negotiation, in reality it could simply delay redress for the employee, especially if the employer chooses to delay. The employer may choose to wait in the hope that the employee secures new employment, which will reduce the amount of any compensation and settlement or even result in no settlement. Once an employee secures alternative employment there may be less need or appetite to pursue legal proceedings.
In reality, it may take weeks still for acas EC to contact both the employer and employee, at least in the short-term. As is currently the case, an employer may not be aware of the application for several weeks.
In theory, whilst the twelve-week period provides more time for parties to negotiate without recourse to legal proceedings in reality, employees need to be aware of attempts simply to delay the process and the risk of a delay in redress.
What can an employee do about it?
Employees should bear in mind that twelve weeks is the maximum time for acas Early Conciliation. If the employee feels that the employer is delaying, the employee has the option of requesting the acas Early Conciliation certificate at any time. The certificate triggers the time limit clock ticking again, giving a small window before the need to launch a claim in the employment tribunals. Reactivation of the time limit clock may encourage the employer to engage in meaningful settlement negotiations. Alternatively, to make the most out of acas EC, the employee should keep up clear and regular communications with acas EC.
What can an employer do about it?
Whilst the employer will have more time to take instructions from its decision makers, the benefits of an early settlement include reduction in management time, and the advantage of other timely contractual obligations from the employee. On the other hand, a delay may be advantageous for the reasons cited above under Who Benefits?
What can/will the Government do about it?
An employer and employee should already have a good idea about the claim and will have seen much of the evidence each party seeks to rely upon due to the requirement to undertake a grievance, disciplinary, redundancy or performance, or capability process (see the acas Code of Practice on Disciplinary and Grievance procedures). As an alternative to keeping the twelve-week acas EC period, how about the employer being notified automatically about the acas EC application as soon as it is made? The employer will have an opportunity (and incentive) to be more prepared once acas EC gets in touch to understand its position and can choose to start a negotiation process at any point from notification. A mechanism may need to be put in place to avoid an employee simply requesting the certificate, perhaps to the point that the acas EC officer has an initial discussion with the employee. Such step(s), I would suggest will avoid the risk of delay in resolution and place the parties on a more equal footing.
The Government will review how the extended period is working in October 2026?
Louise Maynard, is an Employment Rights Lawyer
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Disclaimer
The above provides a general overview of areas in employment law and is not intended nor construed as providing specific legal advice. This article is for information purposes only and is correct at the time of publication. It does not constitute legal advice.
11.11.25
