ACAS Early Conciliation Now 12 Weeks, tribunal deadlines extended

What is ACAS?

ACAS – the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service works with millions of employers and employees each year. ACAS is an independent public body that is government funded.

What is ACAS early conciliation – employee led?

It is mandatory for employees wishing to pursue most employment tribunal claims e.g. unfair dismissal, constructive dismissal, discrimination to obtain an ACAS early conciliation certificate. The ACAS certificate number is required on the tribunal claim form (ET1).

In order to obtain an ACAS early conciliation certificate, an employee must initiate ACAS early conciliation. This can be done online – What early conciliation is – Early conciliation – ACAS. The employee can then either choose to attempt to conciliate with the employer, or to have the certificate issued immediately.

ACAS early conciliation must be initiated before the limitation date. Limitation dates in employment matters are quite short and are usually 3 months less one day from the date of termination of employment or last act of discrimination.

The time spent conciliating via ACAS has the impact of pausing the clock on the limitation date. In practice this means the limitation date is usually extended to the later of:

• Adding the time spent conciliating to the original limitation date; or
• One month from the date of the ACAS early conciliation certificate.

The previous position was that the early conciliation period lasted for a maximum of 6 weeks, and the certificate was automatically generated after 6 weeks (42 days).

From 1^st December the length of ACAS early conciliation has been extended from 6 weeks to 12 weeks as set out in The Employment Tribunals (Early Conciliation: Exemptions and Rules of Procedure) (Amendment) Regulations 2025. The impact of this change is that limitation dates by which an employee has to lodge a claim with the tribunal will be extended.

The aim of this change is to relieve some of the pressure on both ACAS and the Employment Tribunals. The hope is that if ACAS have the case for longer to facilitate conciliation this may mean that less cases are lodged in the Employment Tribunal.

The 12 weeks extension will be reviewed in October 2026.

Example of limitation date

• An employee is dismissed with immediate effect on 31 December 2025.
• The initial limitation date is 30 March 2026; this is the date the employee must initiate ACAS early conciliation by.
• If the employee initiates ACAS early conciliation on 30 March 2026, the certificate would automatically be issued 12 weeks later if conciliation is not successful on for example 22 June 2026.
• The employee’s limitation date would then be extended for one month after the certificate date to 22 July 2026.

This example is for an illustration only and should not be relied on as legal advice as each situation is different and must be reviewed on its own facts.

The negative impact for employers

The downside for an employer is that a claim may not be lodged in some situations until over 6 months after the end of employment. It usually then takes the Employment Tribunal several months to send out a claim and therefore the claim may not be received by the employer until for example 8 months after the end of employment.

Can employers initiate ACAS early conciliation?

Yes, an employer can use the ACAS conciliation process to attempt to conciliate an employment matter while an employee is still employed or after termination. Sometimes reaching an agreement with an employee through ACAS under a COT3 agreement can be beneficial because the employer will not be obliged to meet a contribution for legal fees in having a settlement agreement explained. Employer led conciliation must be initiated over the phone and the employer must have the employee’s agreement to do so.

How can Ellis Jones help?

If you need any advice about bringing or defending a tribunal claim, or reach an early settlement, have been offered a settlement agreement, please do not hesitate to contact us on employment@ellisjones.co.uk   or 01202 057754 to speak to a friendly and reassuring adviser from our Employment team.