Back in March, I noted on this blog how HM Courts & Tribunal Service had begun to revise its previously published management information on the backlog of Employment Tribunal cases, and how this had started to shrink the size of the previously ever-growing backlog. And the latest set of monthly data, published yesterday, indicates that this magical process has not only continued, but has accelerated.

So, for example, the backlog as of April 2022, which was 48,499 according to the HMCTS data set published on 13 February 2023, but which had been shrunk to 48,139 and then to 47,394 in the data sets published on 9 March and 13 April, has now been revised down to just 44,364. And the backlog as of November 2022, which was 51,670 according to the data set published on 12 January 2023, but which had been shrunk to 50,473, 49,592 and 48,308 in the data sets published on 13 February, 9 March and 13 April, has now been revised down to just 43,980 (an overall downwards revision of 15%).

According to this latest data set, and in marked contrast to the previous data sets, the backlog has been under 45,000 since at least March 2022. And, as of March 2023, it stood at a mere 42,980.

Which is very good news, and means that my chart of the backlog since March 2018 now looks like this:

Rejoice!