However, because of a delay producing the statistics – which relate to the year ended March 2008 – the figures will not take into account many claims resulting from the recession.

Claims are getting more complex, with over 62,000 claims brought under Equal Pay laws and over 55,000 brought under the Working Time Directive. Additionally, in the first full year of the operation of the new Age Discrimination laws, introduced in October 2006, 2,949 claims were made, although this is still only around a tenth of the number of claims brought for Sex Discrimination.