Important Change to the ACAS Early Conciliation Period from 1 December 2025

From 1 December 2025 the ACAS early conciliation period is being extended from 6 weeks to 12 weeks.

What is ACAS Early Conciliation?

Early conciliation is a mandatory step for every prospective claimant considering bringing a claim in the Employment Tribunal (with some exemptions). There are strict time limits for making a claim, in most cases it is 3 months less one day from the date of their complaint/issue. ACAS must be notified within that period; This triggers the early conciliation period. During the conciliation period, if both parties agree to conciliate (you can say no as participation is voluntary), ACAS will talk to both the prospective claimant and the prospective respondent about the dispute to try and reach a mutually agreeable resolution. The conciliator will facilitate free, impartial communication between the parties to clarify issues and promote settlement to prevent the dispute escalating into formal legal proceedings.

Early Conciliation Period

Currently, the early conciliation period can last up to 6 weeks for claims notified to ACAS on or before 30 November 2025.

Due to the increasing backlog of cases going through early conciliation and to ease the pressure on ACAS following a rise in demand for early conciliation, the government passed The Employment Tribunals (Early Conciliation: Exemptions and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2025 (‘the Regulations’). The Regulations provide that on 1 December 2025 the law will change and if you notify ACAS of a prospective claim on or after 1 December 2025, early conciliation will last up to 12 weeks. There is a possibility this could be annulled by the House of Lords or House of Commons but, given timings, seems unlikely.

If settlement of the dispute is not achieved within the early conciliation period, ACAS must issue an early conciliation certificate bringing the conciliation period to an end. The conciliation certificate is required to bring an employment tribunal claim.

Time limits for making a claim to the Employment Tribunal

The extension to the early conciliation period will not affect the strict time limits to make a claim to the Employment Tribunal. For most claims you have 3 months less one day from the date of the claimant’s complaint/issue, although other time limits do apply for some specific claims.

During the early conciliation period, the ‘clock is stopped’ on the time limits, the effect of which is that the period of early conciliation extends the time limit for bringing the claim to a later date lengthening the overall period in which the prospective claimant can issue a claim. The exact date which the claim must be brought by will depend on the date ACAS issues its conciliation certificate. Working out the exact time limit can be complicated, as such, it is recommended that a prospective claimant seeks legal advice to ensure that their claim is brought within the required time limits.

The longer conciliation period will allow prospective claimants and respondents more time to settle the claimant’s dispute and may avoid the need to commence legal proceedings. As the time limit to bring a claim will be extended as a result of the longer conciliation period, it may, in some cases, be more than six months from the date of the original complaint before the claimant formally issues a claim. Further, if the Employment Rights Bill’s proposals to extend tribunal time limits to six months comes in, the overall time frame for bringing a claim could stretch to nine to ten months. For claimants this means they have longer to consider their options, gather evidence and to issue a claim; for respondents however, this means a longer period of uncertainty about whether a claim will be issued against them, extended evidence retention and the possibility of losing witnesses.

The Government will review effectiveness of the 12-week period in October 2026 to decide if it should remain or revert to a shorter period.

Nb: The Regulations were laid before Parliament on 4 November 2025 and are subject to the negative procedure meaning that they can be annulled by a motion in either House within 40 sitting days.

To book an appointment or to discuss further please contact Sara Cox on 01732 375349 or Louise Brenlund on 01732 375325.

This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal or professional advice. Please note the law may have changed since this article was published.

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