In Vento v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police (No. 2) [2002] the Court of Appeal identified three broad bands of compensation for injury to feelings awards, as distinct from compensation awards for psychiatric or similar personal injury. The bands have not been formally updated since 2009, and are yet to take into account the Court of Appeal’s decision in Simmons v Castle to increase damages by 10% (incorporated into employment tribunal awards of compensation for injury to feelings and psychiatric injury following De Souza v Vinci Construction (UK) Ltd (see above)).
Accordingly, the Presidents of the employment tribunals have recently issued a consultation on employment tribunal awards and are seeking views on increasing the bands for damages for injury to feelings and psychiatric injury in line with the RPI.
The new proposed bands for awards for injury to feelings are as follows:
These new bands would apply to any claim presented on or after the date of the Presidential Guidance. It is proposed that the bands would then be uprated every 12 months based upon the most recent RPI value available (rounded to the nearest £1,000). Any responses to the consultation should be received by Friday 25 August 2017. David Potter, Partner, Freeths 0845 274 6819