A new Acas study looked at conciliated cases closed between the beginning of January and end of March 2014, before Statutory Early Conciliation was introduced. The key statistics from the research are as follows:

– The majority of claims related to unfair dismissal (61%) or wages claims (13%); all jurisdictions were however represented in the sample to some degree.

– Most settlements involved some form of monetary compensation; 61% were monetary only, six% were non-monetary only and 31% had an element of both.

– The mean average monetary value of the settlements was £6,600; this was however distorted by a handful of high value claims so a more representative average figure is the median at £3,000.

– Over half of claimants had used a representative to deal with the case on their behalf; most commonly this was a solicitor or lawyer (63%), trade union (23%) or family member or friend (11%).

Acas also confirmed that since the new mandatory early conciliation service came into force, they are dealing with around 1600 cases a week and have dealt with nearly 40,000 cases in the first six months of operation.

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