NEWS
The uprated Vento Bands for injury to feelings compensation have been published following consultation.
DETAILS
The “Vento Bands” consultation, launched by the Presidents of Employment Tribunals in England & Wales and Scotland in July 2017 (see our newsflash of 27 July 2017), looked at the uprating of bands of compensation for injury to feelings in discrimination cases. The proposal to uprate the bands came as a result of a Court of Appeal case, De Souza v Vinci Construction (UK) Ltd, in which it was decided that compensation for injury to feelings and personal injury in discrimination cases should be increased by 10% to take inflation into account.
The new bands will apply to any claims issued on or after 11 September 2017 and the increases from the current Vento bands are:
|
Band |
Vento |
New Band |
|
Lower – for less serious cases |
£500 - £5,000 |
£800 - £8,400 |
|
Middle – for serious cases which do not merit being in the higher band |
£5,000 - £15,000 |
£8,400 - £25,200 |
|
Upper – the most serious cases |
£15,000 - £25,000 |
£25,000 - £42,000 |
|
Exceptional cases |
Over £42,000 |
For any claims presented before 11 September 2017 it will be open to the tribunal to adjust the bands to reflect inflation, and Presidential Guidance will be issued which will include the methodology for doing this.
The new bands will be reviewed in March 2018 and annually thereafter.
COMMENT
Graham Irons comments: "The new bands represent a significant increase in the potential compensation for injury to feelings. Aside from injury to feelings, successful claimants can also pursue loss of earnings and there is no cap on compensation for discrimination. Equality and diversity training is a useful tool to help minimise the risk of discrimination claims within your organisation."
If you would be interested in Howes Percival’s equality and diversity training, please contact a member of the team.
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