New employment tribunal statistics show a significant rise in the number of age discrimination claims submitted.

The official Tribunal statistics for 2009/10 are available here. The Tribunal statistics are collated every year to report on the number and type of claims being submitted. The statistics show that 236,100 claims were submitted in total. Claims under the Working Time Regulations, for unfair dismissal and for unauthorised deductions from wages were most common.

The statistics show that in 2009/10, 5,200 claims for age discrimination were submitted. This is a 37% rise and is consistent with the rise in previous years. There were 972 claims in 2006/7 and this rose to 2,949 in 2007/8 then 3,801 in 2008/9.

At this rate, age discrimination will next year become the third most common strand of discrimination. Race, the current third, has plateaued at 4,000 to 5,000 (sex/equal pay is the most common, disability discrimination is the second).