ACAS conciliation certificate
Plain-English definitions for England and Wales. General information, not legal advice. Laws and figures change - always check the current position on GOV.UK.
ACAS conciliation certificate The certificate ACAS issues at the end of Early Conciliation, whether or not the dispute settled. You cannot present most tribunal claims without its unique reference number. Once it is issued you have the longer of the time left on your original deadline, or one month from the certificate date, to file the ET1.
Also known as: EC certificate
Related terms
- ACAS Early Conciliation
- A free, confidential service from ACAS that you must notify before you can bring most employment tribunal claims. A conciliator contacts both sides to see whether the dispute can be settled without a hearing. Notifying ACAS also pauses the tribunal time-limit clock while conciliation runs.
- ET1 claim form
- The form used to start an employment tribunal claim. It sets out who you are claiming against and what your claims are. You normally cannot submit it until you have an ACAS Early Conciliation certificate, and it must reach the tribunal within the time limit.
- Time limit (limitation period)
- The deadline for bringing a claim. For most employment tribunal claims it is 3 months less 1 day from the event you are complaining about, and you must notify ACAS to start Early Conciliation within that window. Statutory redundancy pay and equal pay claims have a 6-month limit.
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