The Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (Acas) saw a 27% increase in demand for its individual dispute resolution service, which helps to resolve potential employment tribunal claims, according to its latest annual report.

It handled more than 150,000 early conciliation notifications, resolving over nine out of 10 cases, an all-time high, avoiding unnecessary stress and cost for both employees and employers.

Acas also recorded strong demand for its workplace advice and training. Acas chief executive Niall Mackenzie said: “It has been an exceptionally demanding year for Acas. Our staff have worked hard to help prevent, manage and resolve conflict during a period of huge change to employment laws, as well as innovating how we deliver for customers.

“Experts in our dispute resolution service helped to prevent costly and distressing court action for tens of thousands of employers and workers. They also helped to resolve 93% of collective disputes between employers and groups of workers.

“There has also been strong demand for our online advice and our training, which play a key role in encouraging healthy employment relations and preventing conflict at work.”

Acas was involved in 401 collective disputes between employers and groups of workers, with a settlement rate of 93%, between April 2025 and March 2026.

Its helpline answered 584,000 calls from employers and workers across Great Britain. It trained more than 400,000 people from small businesses to large organisations through webinars, electronic learning and in person on topics including conflict prevention and management and the Employment Rights Act 2025.

The independent workplace body said it has adapted to meet the needs of customers who use AI tools such as ChatGPT, ensuring Acas advice can be accurately found and summarised in AI search results.

In her foreword to the annual report, Claire Chapman, Acas chair, said: “The Employment Rights Act and preparatory work for the government’s Make Work Pay programme represent both a major legislative shift and a significant change for the labour market.

“The transformation goals we’ve set for ourselves at Acas, simpler services, better use of data, strengthened digital guidance, and a more coherent experience for users are entirely designed to help us provide trusted, accessible support at this time when employment rights, enforcement frameworks and workplace expectations are evolving so rapidly.”

Mackenzie added: “Only 7% of employment tribunal cases closed in 2025-26 that touched Acas resulted in a court hearing. This was because we resolved 36% of early conciliation notifications despite a 27% increase in volume. We resolved a further 80% of cases that came to us following an employment tribunal application.”

The majority of Acas funding is provided through a grant from the Department for Business and Trade. For 2025-26 it received a resource allocation of £67.9 million with total expenditure of £72.3 million (2024-25, £64.1 million).

Income generated from chargeable services amounted to £5.6 million during the year (2024-25, £5.5 million). This meant an underspend of £1.2 million, equivalent to 1.6% of budget.

Acas had 1,015 full-time equivalent staff in 2025-26, up from 990 in 2024-25. Annual staff turnover was 6.7%, compared with 8.6% for 2024-25.

 

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