Acas early conciliation: what it is, when to start it, and how it moves your last day
- What
- You must tell Acas before you can make an employment tribunal claim. Acas then offers early conciliation, which can last up to 12 weeks (SI 2025/1153).
- When
- Tell Acas before your last day: the pause works only if Acas hears from you inside the limit (Acas, updated 1 October 2026).
- How
- With no deal, Acas gives you a certificate with a number for the claim form. You then have at least 1 month from the day you get it.
The date is free. The £29 draft pack drafts the claim from your own timeline.
Dismissed before 1 October 2026: 3 months less a day. Dismissed from 1 October 2026: 6 months less a day. If you were dismissed on 15 September 2026, your last day is 14 December 2026; if on 1 October 2026, it is 31 March 2027.
How the pause moves your date
Day A is the day Acas gets your notification, and Day B the day you get the certificate. The days after Day A up to Day B are added to your date (Employment Rights Act 1996, section 207B). If that lands less than 1 month after Day B, you get 1 month after Day B instead.
Worked through: dismissed on 1 October 2026, the last day is 31 March 2027. If you tell Acas on 10 November 2026 and get the certificate 12 weeks later on 2 February 2027, the last day moves to 23 June 2027.
You can put your own Day A and Day B in the calculator above. If you only have Day A, it shows where the date lands if conciliation runs the full 12 weeks.
ET1 draft pack: your claim details, drafted (£29)
Work out your date above; the pack is offered under it. You type what happened, date by date. Back comes a numbered draft for the claim form, the list of what the form asks for, and a calendar file with your last day and reminders 14, 7 and 1 days before.
Not a legal review, not filed for you. The checking and the filing stay with you: you make the claim yourself on GOV.UK.
You pay £29 only for the draft and the calendar file, never for the date: the date and every step are free above.
Sources, each opened on 8 October 2026
- SI 2026/954 (made 1 September 2026): regulation 3, the longer limits "come into force on 1st October 2026"; regulation 4(1), they do not apply where the relevant date "occurs before 1st October 2026".
- SI 2025/1153 (in force 1 December 2025): early conciliation goes from six weeks to 12.
- Acas, Employment tribunal time limits (updated 1 October 2026): the worked examples (wrong pay on 30 September 2026 ends on 29 December 2026; on 1 October 2026, 31 March 2027) and the pause while early conciliation runs.
- Acas, How early conciliation works (updated 1 October 2026): "Early conciliation can last up to 12 weeks"; the certificate number goes on form ET1; at least 1 month after the certificate if you told Acas in time.
- GOV.UK, Make a claim to an employment tribunal: "You do not have to pay a fee to make a claim"; claim online or post the form; the Acas certificate numbers.
- GOV.UK, Form ET1 (updated 1 October 2026): the claim form, online or as a download.
Every rule the calculator uses, with the full source list.
Not legal advice. We are not solicitors and we file nothing: you make the claim yourself.