UK Employment Insights: Extension to the ACAS Early Conciliation Period – Six Weeks to Twelve Weeks

Eu-Fern Lai, Trainee Solicitor

Fern works across a range of matters, including family, employment, higher education, civil claims for rape and sexual assault, and historical child sexual abuse.

Effective 1 December 2025, the ACAS Early Conciliation period is being extended from six weeks to twelve weeks. This is to allow ACAS to better address delays in the conciliation process and to ease the backlog at Employment Tribunals across the country.

The changes are being introduced through the ‘Employment Tribunals (Early Conciliation: Exemptions and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2025’. The amended regulations come into effect on 1 December 2025, though the extension to the Early Conciliation period will not apply retrospectively, meaning only Early Conciliation forms submitted on or after this date will benefit from the extended time period.

What is the ACAS Early Conciliation process?

The Early Conciliation process is a mandatory step by which claimants must notify ACAS of their intention to make a claim at the Employment Tribunal. While ACAS can facilitate a ‘conciliation’ process after being notified of the claim, the conciliation meeting is voluntary. Parties need not actually conciliate, but can request that the Early Conciliation certificate be issued forthwith, allowing them to provide this to the Tribunal when lodging their claims there.

The benefit, however, of the Early Conciliation process has always been that it can ‘stop the clock’ on limitation for the period of conciliation. In practice, this has allowed claimants to extend the limitation period for filing their claims with the Tribunal.

Delays to the ACAS Early Conciliation process

Understandably, persistent delays in the Early Conciliation process in recent months have caused concern for many.

We have, in the course of our work, seen not only that conciliators are being assigned only toward the end of the six-week period, but that, in fact, certificates are being issued before a conciliator has even been assigned.

A twelve-week period can therefore be helpful for those who wish to enter the Early Conciliation process, particularly litigants-in-person. The concern, however, is that this extension to the Early Conciliation process may in effect further delay prompt resolution to employment disputes.

Considering that we are now starting to see trials set for 2028 and onwards, depending on Tribunal location, claimants are realistically looking at a time period of two to three years, or longer, before being able to obtain a Tribunal judgment.

It therefore remains to be seen whether the extended Early Conciliation period will have a positive effect on the Tribunal backlog.

If you are struggling with an employment dispute and require assistance, we advise that you reach out promptly to an employment solicitor who can guide you on the best course of action in the face of such delays.