ACAS Annual Report 2005/2006

The ACAS Annual Report and Accounts for the 12 months to 31st March 2006 was issued on 26th July 2006.

The ACAS Annual Reports home page and index provides links to all ACAS annual reports since 1999.

ACAS has had its budget allocation reduced (2005/06 £47.3m; 2006/07 £46.3m, 2007/08 £44.3m). Although it is too polite to say so in the Annual Accounts, the savings ACAS achieves for employers, employees and employment tribunals combined with the still-continuing increase in employment laws and regulations (see notes at Age discrimination and at 00In the pipeline ) may mean that, if fully implemented, these budget cuts will prove counter-productive in the longer run (see notes re House of Commons Committee enquiry into the work of ACAS, January 2006). The title of the press release accompanying publication of the 2005/06 accounts lends credence to this possibility (2006/07/26 - ACAS Press Release "Demand for ACAS services increases").

"Highlights" of the 2005/2006 ACAS annual report include:

• the number of requests for ACAS to intervene in collective disputes and conciliate between the two sides fell slightly again to 952 (including most notably brokering successful dialogue between the parties in disputes involving Gate Gourmet/BA and the BBC) - recent comparative figures were 1,123 in year ended 31.3.05 1,244 in year ended 31.3.94, and 1,353 in year ended 31.3.03.

• there were 109,712 applications to tribunals compared to 81,833 in the previous year. Unfair dismissal continued to be the largest category of complaint with 35,944 applications.

• the ACAS helpline answered 908,553 calls (at an average cost of £7.33 per call) compared to 880,787 in the previous year (at an average cost of £8 per call)

The ACAS individual arbitration scheme attracted only 6 requests in the year ended 31.3.2006 (see notes at Arbitration/ACAS new scheme ) .

See also notes at ACAS/functions of/conciliation services .