Preparing an ET1 Claim Form

Sections 1 to 7 are where you provide details about you, your employer, and the nature of your employment relationship. These sections are mostly self-explanatory and further guidance on how to complete these sections can be found here.

A few points to note about sections 1 – 7

Section 1 – This is where you add your details. As the worker bringing the tribunal claim against the employer you are referred to the as the ‘claimant’.

Section 2 – This is where you put the respondents’ details. The respondent is the employer against whom you are making the claim(s) and it is very important to get this correct to prevent having to make an application to change it to the Employment Tribunal. The respondent’s name should match the respondent’s name on your Acas conciliation certificate. If in doubt, you can check for their name on Companies House.

• Multiple Respondents: You can add multiple respondents. For example, alongside your employer there may be individual colleagues who are personally responsible for the detrimental treatment you received or for your dismissal. If you add multiple respondents, you will need a different Acas early conciliation certificate number for each respondent, you can obtain this by contacting Acas directly. If required, you can add two additional respondents in Section 13.

Section 2.3 –  Here you add the Acas early conciliation certificate number we referred to above. It is important to ensure that you add the certificate number accurately.

Section 8 is the most important part of the ET1 form. This is where you will explain to the tribunal the type of claim you are making and set out the details of your case. 

Section 8.1

Section 8.1 contains several boxes indicating the type of claim(s) that you can make as well as a space to add different claims that do not fit into the boxes on the prescribed claim form. You should tick all the boxes that apply to your case. The ET1 form was updated in mid-2023 to include a specific box for whistleblowing claims which did not previously feature.

The Employment Rights Act 1996 (amended by Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998) provides the right to bring two different types of claim against an employer:

i. Automatically Unfair Dismissal if you are an employee

• You can only make a claim for automatically unfair dismissal if you are an employee as defined under section 230(3) of the Employment Rights Act 1996. If you are claiming automatically unfair dismissal because of whistleblowing, you should tick the box which says “I am making a whistleblowing claim including dismissal or any other unfair treatment after whistleblowing”. Contact our Advice Line if you are unsure of your worker status or what claims you can bring.  

ii. Detriment claim if you are an employee or worker

• If you are an employee claiming detriment as well as automatic unfair dismissal, you will have already ticked the box which says “I am making a whistleblowing claim including dismissal or any other unfair treatment after whistleblowing” and so you do not need to tick anything further for the whistleblowing detriment claim.
• If you are only bringing a detriment claim as a worker or employee, you should tick the box which says “I am making a whistleblowing claim including dismissal or any other unfair treatment after whistleblowing”.
• For more information about victimisation and detriment please see our advice page. 

It is then within section 8.2 of the ET1 where you set out and explain each of the different claims you are bringing. 

Multiple Different Types of Claims

It is possible that you may have a right to bring several different types of claim, if this is the case you should tick all the boxes that apply to your case and add additional information if required about the different types of claims you are bringing. For example, as an employee you may have experienced detrimental treatment at work prior to being dismissed. In this example, you may wish to bring a claim for the detrimental treatment you received prior to being dismissed as well as a claim for unfair dismissal.

It is also possible that you may have a right to bring another type of claim that is not prescribed by PIDA. For example, you may have experienced discrimination because of a protected characteristic as well as detrimental treatment for whistleblowing. You should tick all the boxes that are relevant to your case.

This is where you write a statement setting out the basis of the claim(s) you are bringing. It is important that you are accurate, clear and specific and that you provide all the relevant information.

When bringing a claim under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 (PIDA) there are several elements that you as the claimant must prove to the tribunal. You must write the statement with these elements in mind.

The two key elements you must show when bringing a claim under the Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 are: 

That you made a protected disclosure(s).

Raising a whistleblowing concern is known as making a ‘protected disclosure.’ To receive protection under PIDA, and therefore to have the right to bring a whistleblowing detriment or dismissal claim, you must first have made a protected disclosure.

When assessing whether you made a protected disclosure the tribunal will look to see that a number of tests have been met:

• That you, the employee or worker, disclosed information that you reasonably believed tended to show wrongdoing that falls under one of the six categories set out in the legislation (see s43B of the Employment Rights Act 1996), and that you reasonably believed that the disclosure was in the public interest.
• That you disclosed the information in the correct way to the correct person or organisation. For example, the person named in your employer’s whistleblowing policy or a regulator.

That the protected disclosure is the reason you were treated detrimentally or dismissed

Once the tribunal has established that you made a protected disclosure(s), it will then look to see whether the protected disclosure was the reason you were treated detrimentally or dismissed.

The tribunal will use a different test depending on whether you are claiming detriment or dismissal. For a detriment claim under PIDA you will need to establish ‘material influence.’ For a dismissal claim under PIDA you will need to show that the protected disclosure was the ‘principal or primary reason’ for your dismissal.

How to structure your ET1 statement

You can either write the details of your claim directly into box 8.2, or you can write the details of your claim in a separate word document or PDF which you attach to the claim when you submit it to the tribunal. If you are attaching a separate document you should write a note in box 8.2 to explain that a document is attached.

You can use our template ‘Particulars of Claim‘ as a guide to structure your  statement, you can find this in our template library, along with an example particulars of claim.

It is a good idea to structure the statement chronologically in short numbered paragraphs. It is not effective to write a long narrative giving lots of historic details to the tribunal – you should instead focus on the key aspects of your claim.

Once you have submitted the ET1 claim form you will have the opportunity to make a witness statement, this is where you will provide detailed information about your claim and set out your evidence. The ET1 statement should be more concise than your witness statement and does not need to be as detailed. You can use the structure we have suggested below, and our template Particulars of Claim as a guide to help you write your statement.

1. Key background information. The first paragraph should set out key information about your employment, you should include details such as:

• The organisation you worked for and the type of business or industry it is
• The date you started working for the organisation and the date that you stopped working for them (if you have left)
• Your job title, and key duties and responsibilities

2. Summary of Claims. You should provide a basic summary of the claims that you are bringing and the relevant piece of legislation.

This should be a bullet point list of all the claims that you are bringing. For example, as noted above, there are two claims that you can bring under whistleblowing law, they can be listed in the following way:

• Whistleblowing detriment under section 47B of the Employment Rights Act 1996
• Automatic unfair dismissal under section 103A Employment Rights Act 1996

3. Facts of your case. You should then set out the facts of the case and the concerns you raised. You should add information such as:

• The specific details of your concerns. The date, time, and location that acts or issues occurred, and when and how they came to your attention. Exactly what did you see, hear or read that made you concerned.
• Why did this make you feel concerned? For example, were there health and safety concerns that put other workers at risk or did you know that it was a breach of safeguarding policy?
• If you raised several concerns you should detail each concern in a separate paragraph and be as specific as possible.
• Is there any evidence such as emails, letters, notes or paperwork that can prove you concerns? If so you can say what they are, but at this stage of the tribunal process you do not need to provide any evidence.
• Identify relevant managers or colleagues by their full name and job title.

4. Details of the protected disclosure. Next you need to clearly state that you made a “protected disclosure” and evidence this by providing information to show that the concerns you raised and the way you raised the concerns meet the required legal tests to be a protected disclosure. If you made multiple protected disclosures you should number each protected disclosure chronologically.

A. You should start by stating that you made a protected disclosure and provide information about the disclosure(s):

• Provide the date and time you made the disclosure
• Details of who you made the disclosure to, where and in what format i.e. written or oral. If you raised your concerns in accordance with your organisation’s whistleblowing or grievance policy, you should state so here.
• You should provide as much detail as possible about the information you disclosed. Be specific, don’t just say that you disclosed health and safety breaches, say exactly what the health and safety breaches you disclosed were.
• If you made several disclosures, you should list each disclosure separately and provide all the details mentioned above.

B. You then need to state which of the six categories of wrongdoing listed under PIDA, the concerns tend to show. More information on the six categories of wrong doing can be found here.

C. Next state that the disclosure was in the public interest and explain why this is the case. Find out more about public interest here.

• Provide information such as the number of people affected by the concerns, and who those people are. The position of those responsible for the wrongdoing and the seriousness of the concerns.

D. Then detail the response you received to your protected disclosure.

5. Detriment or Dismissal. Explain that you believe you have suffered detrimental treatment or have been dismissed because of the protected disclosure(s) you made. Provide details of the detrimental treatment you received and/or the events leading up to your dismissal.

• List every example of negative treatment you received as a result of the protected disclosure. Again, you need to be specific. Include when and where the treatment happened, and who was responsible. You should also clearly detail what the treatment was for example don’t just say “X was consistently rude” you should explain exactly what X said that was rude.
• It is important to be accurate if you cannot remember the exact wording of a remark you should add the statement “…or words to that effect” after saying what you think was said.
• The same principles apply if you are making a claim for unfair dismissal. You should list all events, actions and incidents that led up to the dismissal and any examples that evidence that the reason for your dismissal was the protected disclosure.
• Your experience of working at the organisation prior to making the protected disclosure. Consider questions such as: did you have a good relationship with your colleagues and manager prior to disclosing your concerns? Did you receive positive feedback in appraisals or a promotion, award or recognition for your work? Did you experience negative treatment or bad working conditions prior to the disclosure?

6. Impact and remedy. Finally, you should detail how you have been impacted by the detrimental treatment or dismissal. For example, have your mental health suffered as a result? Have your relationship been impacted? etc.

You can also provide an overview of the remedy that you are claiming. There is also space in section 9 of the ET1 form to provide information about what you want to happen if your claim is successful. More information about remedies and calculating compensation can be found here: Remedies in Whistleblowing Cases – Protect – Speak up stop harm (protect-advice.org.uk).

This is where you explain to the tribunal what you want to happen if your claim is successful. Under PIDA, the employment tribunal has the power to reinstate you in your old job or another job with the same employer, they can also award unlimited compensation.

If you do not want to return to your employer or your employer is unwilling to accept your return to the workplace, as is often the case, then your only option will be to request compensation. For more information about compensation and your duty to mitigate your loss when out of work please see our webpage on compensation and remedies.

The Employment Tribunal can provide a copy of your claim to the relevant regulator of your employer. If you have not already contacted a regulator about your concerns you may wish to allow the Employment Tribunal to do so.  The employment tribunal only has the power to grant compensation and cannot investigate your claims, a regulator on the other hand does have this power. If you have not already informed a regulator of your concerns we recommend that you contact our Advice Line before ticking this box.

These sections are all relatively self-explanatory. As mentioned above, you can add two additional respondents in section 13 if required.

Section 15 provides a space to add further information. For example, if you are making a group claim and/or your claim is linked to other cases you should add the Acas early conciliation certificate number for the other people in your group here.