A tribunal has jurisdiction to decide only complaints put before it. However, with leave of an employment judge or of the tribunal, any party to tribunal proceedings can amend his pleadings even if this involves adding a new claim or a new defence (r.10(2)(q) of the 2004 employment tribunals rules of procedure - see Procedure of Employment Tribunals/2004 rules/rule 10 - general power to manage proceedings and the leading case of Cocking v Sandhurst (Stationers) Ltd NIRC 1974 ICR 650, the authoritative status of which was confirmed by the Court of Appeal in British Newspaper Printing Corporation (North) Ltd v Kelly [1989] IRLR 222).

The Court of Appeal has stressed that employment tribunals have a very wide and flexible jurisdiction to ensure that justice is done in any particular case and that it did not wish to discourage employment tribunals from exercising their powers to amend originating applications to deal with matters given in evidence, even at a late stage ( Ahuja v Inghams CA 2002 ICR 1485 and see also notes at Employment tribunals/overriding objective ).

For notes on the separate question of bringing up new points on appeal to the EAT go to Employment Appeal Tribunal/a general note .

See also notes at Procedure of Employment Tribunals/adding new claims and/or Time-limits/for various applications to Employment Tribunals/adding defendants to an action