Due to the Tribunals, Courts and Enforcement Act of 2007, the requirement that unpaid tribunal awards must be registered in the County Court (or High Court) has been dropped as of April 1st 2009.

According to a recent announcement, the Government has entered into talks with the High Court Enforcement Officers Association aimed at establishing a service through which creditors will be able to commission a High Court enforcement officer to enforce their settlement or award if the respondent fails to pay the sum they are liable for.

The costs of this enforcement will be recovered from the respondent with a limited cost liability for the creditor.

To highlight the magnitude of the problem of non-payment of awards and settlements, the Ministry of Justice also published a paper in tandem with the announcement.

Titled “Research into Enforcement of Employment Tribunal Awards in England and Wales”, the paper revealed the results of over 1,000 interviews with unique claimants who had been ordered monetary awards by an Employment Tribunal between 2nd January 2007 and 30th April 2008.

Of those interviewed, 39% of those who had won employment tribunal awards had not received any payment from their case. The report also found that just over half (53%) had been paid the money awarded to them in full by the end of the 42-day period allowed in law before interest starts to accrue on the sum awarded.

Provided that this sample of successful claimants is representative of the system as a whole, this means that 2,127 claimants did not receive the payments they were entitled to over a 16-month period.

The paper also showed that claims with an element of working time directive, wages or redundancy pay and consultation were more likely to have been paid in full than claims without these features.

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