ACAS (the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) was set up in 1974. It was given statutory status by the Employment Protection Act 1975. Most of that Act was repealed in 1992 by the Trade Union & Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act 1992 ("TULRCA") which now contains the main statutory provisions relating to ACAS.

Head Office of ACAS is in London and there are regional offices throughout England plus offices in Scotland and in Wales. Each office has a "public enquiry point" and will give free advice on many aspects of employment law and employment related matters generally (see ACAS/addresses, tel & fax nos ).

ACAS has a national public helpline telephone number at 08457 474747. This provides access to various services. Since April 2009 these services have been extended by national roll-out of the ACAS Pre Claim Conciliation Service" or "PCC". Under this scheme, if internal efforts (such as disciplinary and grievance procedures) have failed to resolve a dispute which is likely to end in a formal tribunal claim, but no claim has yet been made, outline details will be passed to a conciliator who will contact the parties to offer Acas' help. ACAS states that up to the end of 2009 there were over 6,000 referrals from the Helpline to Acas conciliators, with around 40% of appropriate referrals resolved, generally in less than 3 weeks. ACAS states that where use is made of this service "a significant number of employees do not pursue ET claims, possibly at least in part because of the information they have received during the PCC process and the opportunity this has given to explore both sides of their dispute in more depth". The ACAS annual report for 2008/09 described the PCC service as "a form of statutory conciliation ..... provided free of charge in appropriate circumstances. In 2008 Acas ran an extensive pilot scheme in the Newcastle, Nottingham and Manchester areas to identify appropriate cases and offer PCC. The pilot was both successful and popular with users".

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ACAS produces many useful publications, including "Employing people - the ACAS handbook" and "the Employment Handbook". These (£2 each) and ACAS Annual Reports (free but £1 for p&p) can be obtained from ACAS Reader Ltd (see ACAS/addresses, tel & fax nos ). ACAS also produces three Codes of Practice which must be taken into account by Courts and Tribunals where appropriate (see Codes of Practice ).

For further notes on services provided by ACAS see the various sub-sub topics in ACAS/functions of and see also notes at Mediation and ADR .