The rising trend of interim relief applications

The Employment Tribunals in England and Wales and in Scotland have issued joint Presidential Guidance on applications for interim relief, which took effect from Monday 22 June 2026. It is intended to help parties understand how tribunals will deal with these urgent applications and to encourage a more proportionate approach.

What is interim relief?

Interim relief is an emergency measure available only in limited categories of automatically unfair dismissal claims, most commonly whistleblowing and trade union cases. It acts to prevent a dismissal from taking effect until the tribunal hears the unfair dismissal complaint. If it is granted, the tribunal may order the employer to reinstate or re-engage the employee. It may also make a continuation of contract order, which keeps the employee on full pay until the final hearing. As the remedies available have significant consequences for the opposing party, the threshold is high, and most applications do not succeed.

Core requirements for interim relief

An application must be presented within seven days of the effective date of termination. The tribunal has no power to extend this deadline. A valid interim relief application also exempts the unfair dismissal claim from ACAS early conciliation, but simply ticking the exemption box is not itself an application. The legal test, imposing a high threshold, is then whether the claimant can show a “pretty good chance of success”. This requires a higher degree of certainty than mere probability and is assessed across all elements of the claim, including issues such as employment status.

Why has the guidance been issued now?

The guidance responds to two trends. Firstly, there has been a sharp increase in applications from around twenty per year across Great Britain to a similar number each month in many tribunal offices. The extraordinary increase has been attributed to the use of AI, which is now readily available to claimants. The second trend is a rise in the volume of accompanying documentation, which is disproportionate to the purpose of interim relief hearings.

Conduct of hearings in future

Applications will be listed before an Employment Judge sitting alone, by video, for no more than three hours by default. This allows one hour’s reading, thirty minutes of submissions for each side, and one hour for the decision. Hearings are public, require at least seven days’ notice, and may only be postponed in special circumstances. Tribunals will make case management orders limiting the length of witness statements or submissions and will require parties to identify their key documents.

Use of AI

The guidance also cautions that, while there is no objection in principle to using AI, AI-generated submissions are often too long and unfocused. Parties remain responsible for ensuring their material is concise, relevant, and accurate.

What this means for employers

A swift and targeted response to an application for interim relief is key. You must check whether the application meets the necessary requirements and identify any genuinely fair reason for dismissal or weakness in the claim.

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