Acas dealt with more than 117,000 early conciliation cases in Great Britain in 2024-25.
This is the highest number of conciliation cases since the pandemic and represents an increase of 13,000 since 2023-24. Acas said it helped to resolve nine out of ten of these early cases, which negated the need to go to tribunal.
The sharp rise in demand for employment mediation has happened as the government moves forward with its Employment Rights Bill. With experts suggesting the changes in the bill could lead to more hikes in disputes, Acas called on Britain’s employers and employees to work together to resolve conflict early.
The service highlighted the huge estimated cost of workplace conflict at £28 billion a year, emphasising the need to prevent the number of disputes rising further. Acas said that disputes are always ideally solved within workplaces, without further escalation.
Acas chair Clare Chapman said: “As the government introduces major employment law reform, and with the UK annual cost of workplace conflict estimated to stand at £28.5 billion, this is a reminder that Acas remains a critical national asset.
“The rise in individual disputes is concerning: just one conflict escalating can cause huge cost and stress to employer and employee.”
Chapman reiterated calls for Britain’s employers and employees to work together to resolve conflict early.
“Small businesses particularly need support to avoid the damaging consequences of conflict,” she added. “Our 2021-25 strategy helped thousands of small businesses through change. Acas doubled its good practice advice and training interactions and increased awareness of Acas support among small and medium-sized businesses from 83 percent to 90 percent.”
The figures have been published in the conciliation service’s 2024-25 Annual Report. They show the service has increased its good practice advice and training interactions over its 2021-25 strategy period from 100,00 to more than 252,000, while website advice grew from 9 million in 2021 to 20.5 million in 2025.
Collective disputes were down from 618 in the financial year 2023-24 to 522 in 2024-25. Data from the Office for National Statistics shows days lost to industrial action were down from 1.85 million in 2023-24 to 597,000 in 2024-25.
In 2024-25, Acas resolved or supported progress toward settlement in 93 percent of collective dispute cases.
