The Government has announced that from 1 December 2025, the ACAS early conciliation period will increase from six to 12 weeks. This change will apply only to conciliation requests made on or after 1 December – requests made to ACAS before then will still trigger a six-week conciliation period (even if the employer is not notified of the conciliation request until 1 December or later). The practical implications of this change may be significant.
All prospective employment tribunal claimants (with very limited exceptions) must notify the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (‘ACAS‘) of their intention to lodge a claim before submitting it formally. This then kicks off the ‘early conciliation period’, where ACAS attempts to mediate a resolution between employee and employer. During this period, the limitation period to bring an employment tribunal claim (three months, in most cases) is paused, with the time prospective claimants have to bring a claim extended once conciliation ends.
Under current rules, that process lasts for a maximum of six weeks, unless either party ends it earlier. Doubling the maximum conciliation period to 12 weeks gives significantly more time for claims to be prepared.
This impact will be deepened by the Employment Rights Bill, which will increase limitation periods to bring tribunal claims from three to six months (save for the small number of claims where the period is already six months). This change is expected to take effect from October 2026. When combined with the increase in the early conciliation period this will mean that, in some circumstances, the period before a tribunal claim needs to be presented could be in excess of nine months. The Government has, however, committed to review whether the 12-week period remains appropriate in October 2026, and so it could be changed again at that stage.
With employment tribunal claims seeing significant delays before they reach a final hearing, these changes risk increasing the period of uncertainty for both employers and employees.
An increase to the early conciliation period may, however, give parties more time to resolve disputes without litigation. The Government’s motivation for this change is to address the “significant pressure” ACAS faces due to an increase in conciliation requests over the past year, so more time may allow ACAS to more meaningfully assist with conciliation.
Employers should bear this change in mind when receiving notifications from ACAS on or after 1 December 2025 (though some notifications will relate to requests for conciliation from the prospective claimant before 1 December, in which case the conciliation period will remain six weeks).
