ACAS Annual Report 2004/2005

The ACAS Annual Report and Accounts for the 12 months to 31st March 2005 was issued on 5th December 2005.

The ACAS web index of ACAS annual reports provides links to all ACAS annual reports since 1999.

ACAS started operations in December 1975 - so 2005 is its 30th year (2005/12/09 - ACAS Press Release "ACAS reaches its 30th birthday")

Figures in its Annual Report and Accounts 2005 show that just over three-quarters of employment tribunal applications were settled or withdrawn before they reached the tribunal stage, frequently with the assistance of ACAS conciliation services (see ACAS/functions of/conciliation services ).

"Highlights" of the 2004/2005 ACAS annual report include:

• there were 86,816 applications to tribunals compared to 104,952 in the previous year. Unfair dismissal continues to be the largest category of complaint with more than one third of applications.

• the number of requests for ACAS to intervene in collective disputes and conciliate between the two sides fell slightly again, from 1,353 in year ended 31.3.03 to 1,244 in year ended 31.3.94 and to 1,123 in year ended 31.3.05.

• the ACAS helpline answered 880,787 calls (at an average cost of £8 per call) compared to 796,649 in the previous year (at an average cost of £7.30 per call)

The ACAS individual arbitration scheme attracted only 5 requests in the year ended 31.3.2005 (see notes at Arbitration/ACAS new scheme ) .