Appeals
Everything on this site about appeals, in one place: what counts as a ground, how to test yours, what the deadline actually is, and where representation changes what is possible. Start wherever your question is.
The process at a glance
Appeals guide
A plain-English guide to appealing a disciplinary outcome or a dismissal: the deadline, the grounds, the hearing, and what runs alongside it.
Based on the ACAS Code of Practice 2015. Position at 15 October 2026.
It sits on your record and can be relied on if there is a later allegation.
The letter sets the date employment ends, unless the appeal changes the outcome.
What you put in writing now is what any later reader will see.
The tribunal time limit does not wait for your employer’s appeal.
An appeal is the one stage where your employer is formally asked to look again. It deserves the same preparation as the hearing itself.
ACAS Code 2015, paras 26 to 29.
The Code lists the opportunity to appeal as one of the steps of a fair process, with its own standards (paras 26 to 29).
Whether a dismissal was fair depends on whether the employer acted reasonably in all the circumstances, in accordance with equity and the substantial merits of the case.
An unreasonable failure to follow the Code, including at appeal, can move an award up or down by as much as 25 per cent.
The Code is not binding in itself. Tribunals take it into account, which is why each step is worth getting right.
ACAS Code 2015, paras 26 to 29; s.98(4) Employment Rights Act 1996; s.207A TULRCA 1992.
Select a step to jump to it. Structure follows the ACAS Code of Practice 2015, paras 26 to 29.
Step 01 of 06
Paras 18 and 22
You should be told in writing what was decided. For a dismissal, the reasons, the date employment ends and the notice period.
Paras 22 and 26
A dismissal letter should state your right of appeal. Note who to write to and in what form.
Employer’s procedure
Find the date the appeal must be lodged, and the date employment ends.
Day one: write down the date you received the letter and diarise the appeal deadline and the tribunal deadline separately.
ACAS Code 2015, paras 18, 22 and 26.
Step 02 of 06
Where time is short, ask for an extension in writing before the deadline passes and give the reason. An appeal lodged late can be refused.
ACAS Code 2015, para 26.
Step 03 of 06
1
Steps in the Code or in your employer’s policy that were missed or misapplied.
2
Conclusions the evidence does not support, or evidence never properly tested.
3
A penalty out of step with the facts, your record or how similar cases were treated.
4
Material that was not available, or was not considered, at the hearing.
Use the grounds that apply and tie each one to a document, a date or a paragraph. A short, specific ground carries more than a long, general one.
ACAS Code 2015, para 26.
Step 04 of 06
Name it
State the decision you are appealing, and the date of the letter.
Separately
Set out each ground on its own, with the fact and where it appears in the papers.
Be clear
Say what outcome you want: the decision overturned, or the sanction reduced.
Ask for them
Ask for anything you have not seen, including the hearing notes.
Name them
Say who will accompany you and ask for a reasonable time to arrange it.
ACAS Code 2015, paras 26 to 28.
A fully separate manager is not always possible, which is why the Code says “wherever possible”. Ask in writing who will hear the appeal, and what part, if any, they played in the decision.
ACAS Code 2015, paras 26, 27 and 29.
s.10 Employment Relations Act 1999; ACAS Code 2015, paras 14 to 17 and 28.
Step 05 of 06
1
You or your companion put the grounds and the points behind them.
2
The appeal manager asks about the evidence and the reasoning.
3
Documents and any new material are reviewed.
4
The manager decides, and the result follows in writing.
The Code sets the principles, not the script. Some appeals review the decision, others rehear the case, so ask your employer which it is.
ACAS Code 2015, paras 26 to 29.
Step 06 of 06
As soon as possible (para 29)
ACAS Code 2015, para 29.
Internal appeal: runs on the employer’s timetable
Tribunal time limit: runs from the date employment ended
Six months where the dismissal falls on or after 1 October 2026.
Appealing internally does not change the tribunal time limits. Missing them can end a claim, however strong the case.
s.111 Employment Rights Act 1996; ACAS, Early conciliation; GOV.UK, Plan to Make Work Pay and Employment Rights Act: timeline update; ACAS, Employment Rights Act 2025.
Next step
Investigation, hearing, decision and appeal, or the grievance route.
In most cases the step before a claim. Notifying ACAS within the time limit protects your position. Conciliation can last up to 12 weeks.
The claim form frames what the tribunal reads, so precise facts and framing matter.
Notifying ACAS is required before most tribunal claims, though taking part in conciliation is voluntary and some claims are exempt. If you notify ACAS within the time limit, you have at least one month from receiving the certificate to make your claim.
s.18A Employment Tribunals Act 1996; ACAS, How early conciliation works.
In force
The time limit for most tribunal claims rises from three months to six, where the act or dismissal falls on or after that date.
Confirmed
For dismissals on or after that date, unfair dismissal needs six months’ service rather than two years, and the cap on the compensatory award is removed.
Not in force
ACAS consulted on a replacement disciplinary and grievance Code. Until it is brought into effect, the 2015 Code applies.
GOV.UK, Plan to Make Work Pay and Employment Rights Act: timeline update; ACAS, Employment Rights Act 2025. ACAS draft Code consultation closed 23 September 2026. Re-verify at the point of use.
General information only, based on the ACAS Code of Practice 2015 and the law as at 15 October 2026.
Start here
Choose the option closest to where you are. Nothing here is a substitute for advice on your own case, which is what the free consultation is for.
Where a sanction has been imposed, the appeal is the route to challenge it internally. Grounds that target procedural failure, evidential gaps and inconsistent treatment carry further than a restatement of the defence, and the outcome letter sets the deadline to lodge them.
After a dismissal two clocks run in parallel: the internal appeal deadline in the outcome letter, and the tribunal time limit, which an internal appeal does not pause. An appeal can still reverse or reduce a dismissal, and a documented record strengthens whatever follows.
Short answer Two separate clocks. The appeal does not pause the other one.
Your internal appeal deadline is set by your employer and is usually short, often five working days from the outcome letter. That is the one most people meet. Separately, the tribunal clock runs from the relevant date, and an internal appeal does not pause it. Notifying ACAS is what pauses it. That is the one most people miss, and missing it is not recoverable.
Key rule
An internal appeal does not extend or suspend the time limit for presenting a tribunal claim. Notifying ACAS for Early Conciliation is what pauses the clock. For most claims the limit is six months less one day where the relevant date falls on or after 1 October 2026, and three months less one day where it falls before that.
Source: Employment Rights Act 2025, s.152 and Sch.12, in force 1 October 2026 under SI 2026/954 (regulation 4 fixes the relevant date); breach of contract claims in England and Wales under SI 2026/759
Practical guidance: ACAS Code of Practice on disciplinary and grievance procedures (2015), paragraphs 26 to 29 on appeals
If your outcome letter is dated and you are unsure which limit applies to you, the free Tribunal Claim Readiness Check works out which limit applies and adjusts it for Early Conciliation, and the answer turns on the relevant date rather than on the date you decide to act.
Three steps, in order
Most people arrive at an appeal knowing they disagree with the outcome and not knowing how to say so in a form an appeal manager has to answer. These three take you from one to the other, and the first two are free and require nothing from you.
The questions people actually ask
Each of these links to the answer on the guide that covers it. Nothing is duplicated here, because two pages answering the same question is two places for the answer to drift.
Drawn from the appeal hearings guide, because these are the points that decide most appeals and they are worth meeting before you write anything.
Seen in practice
Written around the method rather than the result: what was alleged, what the evidence actually showed, where the employer’s own procedure was departed from, and what was put on the record.
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