Following on from our post last week on new employment rates and limits (click: here), the Presidents of the Employment Tribunals in England & Wales and Scotland have issued guidance updating the so-called Vento bands. The Vento bands provide guidance on the amount of compensation to be awarded by Tribunals for injured feelings in successful discrimination claims. The bands were originally set by the Court of Appeal in the leading case of Vento v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police (No 2) [2003] IRLR 102, and have been subsequently uprated over the years to account for inflation and case law changes.
The new Vento bands, set out below, apply to claims presented on or after 6 April 2022:
- a lower band of £990 to £9,900 (this band is for less serious cases) (up from £900 to £9,100 in 2021);
- a middle band of £9,900 to £29,600 (this band is for cases that do not merit an award in the upper band) (up from £9,100 to £27,400 in 2021);
- an upper band of £29,600 to £49,300 (this band is for the most serious cases, such as where there has been a lengthy campaign of discriminatory harassment) (up from £27,400 to £45,600 in 2021),
- with the most exceptional cases capable of exceeding £49,300 (up from £45,600 in 2021).
It is worth noting that, contrary to many claimants’ expectations, an injury to feelings or Vento award is not a punitive award, but is intended to be compensatory.