By Sara Meyer & Hilary Larter
|Published 13 July 2026
The Presidents of the Employment Tribunals in England and Wales and in Scotland have issued new joint Presidential Guidance on interim relief applications (the guidance), which aims to provide an overview to assist claimants in deciding whether to make such an application.
Interim relief may be available in unfair dismissal cases where the reason (or principal reason) for dismissal is one of a number of specified automatically unfair reasons, such as dismissal for making a protected disclosure (whistleblowing), activities as an employee representative in relation to collective redundancy or TUPE consultation, or trade union membership or activities.
An employee must file their application within seven days of the effective date of termination. This is a strict time limit, which the tribunal has no power to extend. An application for interim relief can only succeed if the tribunal finds that the employee has a "pretty good chance of success" at the final hearing of their substantive claim. This threshold is nearer to certainty than mere probability and is therefore difficult to meet.
If the employee's application is successful, the tribunal may order the employer to reinstate or re-engage the employee, or it may make a “continuation of contract order” (which has the effect of keeping the employee suspended on full pay until the full hearing).
The guidance notes that there has been a significant increase in applications for interim relief, primarily in whistleblowing cases. Whereas previously the employment tribunals across Great Britain would receive around 20 applications each year, most tribunal offices are now receiving approximately 20 applications per month. Such applications are also now accompanied by significant volumes of documentation.
Given their emergency nature, applications for interim relief are listed swiftly, which often results in other hearings being postponed or delayed. The success rate for interim relief applications remains low, so the above trends have a negative impact on the administration of justice. The guidance was issued in response to these trends, in an attempt to explain to claimants how such applications are dealt with and to assist them in deciding whether to make an application.
The guidance explains the grounds on which interim relief may be sought, the procedural requirements, the legal test for an application to succeed, information on case management, and tribunal decisions. With regard to case management, the guidance flags that the tribunal may make orders limiting the length of written material that will be considered. It warns that AI generated submissions are often too long and that litigants who use AI have a responsibility to ensure that what is submitted is concise, relevant and accurate.
In its final section, the guidance sets out a number of practical observations about interim relief applications in whistleblowing cases (as these are the most common). These observations include that an employee must demonstrate a good chance that:
The guidance warns that the more hurdles an employee faces to succeed with a claim, the harder it will be to persuade the tribunal that there is a pretty good chance of success. It highlights that cases that rely on many disclosures, where there may be no clear link between any specific disclosure and the decision to dismiss, are less likely to succeed. By contrast, strong cases which have a pretty good chance of success are typically easily identified and explained.
Defending an interim relief application is a significant burden for an employer, especially given the urgent timeframes involved. Employers faced with such applications may wish to draw claimants' attention to the guidance. In particular, the practical observations may persuade some claimants that their application is not worth pursuing given its very limited chances of success.
