The UK Ministry of Justice has released employment tribunal claims statistics for the first quarter of 2014.  According to Michael Rubinstein Publishing, whose blog is a good source for for us regarding UK employment discrimination, there has been a “huge fall in employment tribunal claims as a result of the introduction of fees to bring a case and have it heard.”

“There was a substantial reduction year-on-year in the volume of almost all discrimination claims. In particular, sex discrimination claims are down 81.4%. … Age discrimination claims received by tribunals were down 26%; disability discrimination claims down 47%; race discrimination claims down 60%; religion or belief discrimination claims down 63%; and sexual orientation claims down 60%.”

Can anyone in the UK weigh in on these figures — is this a good or bad trend?  What’s the story with the fee situation — is there any controversy?  And is there any controversy over this trend and what it represents?

The US would like to know.