The ACAS Annual Report and Accounts for the 12 months to 31st March 2008 was issued on 28th July 2008.

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

In the previous year ACAS has had its budget allocation reduced again (2006/07: £45.2m reduced from £46.3m; and 2007/08: £42m reduced from £44.3m). This year the position has been reversed - substantially. It was announced in February 2008 that ACAS would receive up to £37 million over the next three years (see http://www.gnn.gov.uk/Content/Detail.asp?ReleaseID=350550&NewsAreaID=2">2008/02/05 - ACAS Press Release "Acas at centre of £37 million employment relations shake-up"). This is to fund ACAS's role in arrangements being made to implement the Gibbons Review of employment dispute resolution in Great Britain of 21st March 2007 (as to which see notes at Acts of Parliament etc/Employment Act 2008 ).

"Highlights" of the 2007/2008 ACAS annual report include:

• the number of requests for ACAS to intervene in collective disputes and conciliate between the two sides fell again, to 896 - recent comparative figures were 912 in the year ended 31.3.07; 952 in year ended 31.3.06; 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 151,249 cases received for conciliation from the employment tribunals compared to 105,177 in the year ended 31.3.07 and 109,712 in the year ended 31.3.06 (and 81,833 in the previous year). Unusually, unfair dismissal claims were not the largest category of complaint - the largest category was Equal Pay with 53,952 applications (more than double the previous year's figure of 25,264). There were 33,352 unfair dismissal claims (slightly less than the 35,583 in the year to 31.3.07).

• the ACAS helpline answered 885,353 calls at an average cost of £8.50 per call - compared to last year's 839,335 (at an average cost of £9.11) and for the two previous years 908,553 calls (at an average cost of £7.33 per call) and 880,787 (at an average cost of £8 per call).

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