Unfair dismissal and redundancy evidence, United Kingdom
Made Redundant? Locked Out?
Your Evidence Window Is Closing.
To prove unfair dismissal in the UK in 2026 you need your own copies of the employment contract, appraisals, HR correspondence and the dismissal message, captured before your employer revokes access. ProofSnap saves each page as a signed, hashed and timestamped evidence package of 11 to 15 files. Notify Acas within 3 months less 1 day of your dismissal.
By Radim Motycka, founder of ProofSnap · Last updated
Your employer controls the email servers, the Teams workspace, the HR system and every appraisal you have ever been given. ProofSnap captures that evidence in a form a solicitor can verify independently: timestamped, hashed and packaged for an employment tribunal in about 41 seconds per page.
Also available for Microsoft Edge
SnapPack: $4.99, one-off (approx. £3.80) · 7-day free trial, payment card required, cancel at any time
Employment tribunal evidence · Acas early conciliation · Employment Rights Act 1996 and Equality Act 2010 · Works with your solicitor’s case file
How to prove unfair dismissal in the UK: quick answers
- Can I claim unfair dismissal?
- Yes, if you have two or more years of continuous service and your employer either had no fair reason or did not follow a fair procedure. The Employment Rights Act 2025 cuts the qualifying period to six months, not to day one, and that change is legislated but not yet in force: commencement is set for 1 January 2027. Discrimination claims have no service requirement at all.
- What evidence do I need?
- Employment contract, dismissal letter, performance reviews, HR emails, Slack/Teams messages, grievance correspondence, redundancy selection criteria, payslips.
- How long do I have to lodge a claim?
- You must notify Acas within 3 months less 1 day of your effective date of termination. Notifying Acas pauses the clock, and since 1 December 2025 early conciliation can run for up to 12 weeks; you then have at least one month from the certificate to lodge the ET1. The limit rises to 6 months from October 2026.
- Will a screenshot hold up?
- Tribunals accept WhatsApp and Teams messages, and the volume is rising fast: UK employment tribunal cases citing WhatsApp went from 48 in 2019 to 562 in 2024, according to research reported by The Independent in 2024. A bare screenshot is still easy to attack as edited or out of context, which is why an authenticated capture that your solicitor can verify independently carries more weight.
- What about collective redundancy?
- If 20 or more employees at one establishment are proposed for redundancy within 90 days, your employer must consult representatives for at least 30 days, or 45 days where 100 or more are proposed (section 188, TULRCA 1992). For dismissals on or after 6 April 2026 the maximum protective award doubles from 90 to 180 days’ pay per employee.
- Not dismissed yet, but can you see it coming?
- Start capturing now: appraisals, HR emails, Teams messages with your manager. Once your access is revoked it is too late. The 7-day ProofSnap trial requires a payment card and can be cancelled at any time; the one-time SnapPack is the alternative if you would rather not start a subscription.
3 steps to tribunal-ready evidence, about 41 seconds a page
ProofSnap captures forensic evidence of your employment that employment tribunals, Acas and solicitors accept.
Install ProofSnap
Add the Chrome extension. Start your free 7-day trial.
Capture Before Lockout
Open your work email, Slack, Teams or HR portal and click ProofSnap. It captures the rendered page, the page source, the extracted text and the server details in about 41 seconds, then seals the lot with a SHA-256 hash.
File Your Claim
Download the evidence package, which holds 11 to 15 files depending on your plan. Notify Acas for early conciliation, then lodge the ET1 or hand the package to your solicitor.
Made redundant by email, locked out of everything: how the evidence disappears
Every day, UK employers use these tactics. Without forensic evidence, your tribunal claim fails before it starts.
Dismissed by text, email or video call
P&O Ferries dismissed about 800 seafarers by pre-recorded video in March 2022. In Miluska v Roman Property Group a pregnant consultant was dismissed by text message with a jazz hands emoji, and the tribunal awarded £93,616.74. Employers increasingly dismiss by email or Teams call, locking you out of the systems before the meeting ends.
Evidence needed: the dismissal message itself, the employment contract, and the consultation records, or proof that there were none
Systems Locked Immediately
VPN, Teams, email, SharePoint and badge access are usually revoked at the same moment. Your employer then controls every piece of evidence: appraisals, grievance records and internal communications.
Evidence needed: capture everything BEFORE the lockout happens
Performance Reviews Rewritten
Your last three appraisals said “Exceeds Expectations.” Now HR claims your performance was “below standard” and that’s why you were selected for redundancy. The positive reviews have vanished from the HR portal.
Evidence needed: timestamped capture of performance reviews in BambooHR/Workday
Teams/WhatsApp Messages Deleted
Your manager’s discriminatory comments in Teams. The WhatsApp group where they joked about your age/pregnancy/disability. The HR chat where they admitted the real reason. All deleted the day you were dismissed. In Brosnan v Coalo the WhatsApp record was central to a disability discrimination finding worth £134,400.
Evidence needed: Teams and WhatsApp messages with your manager and with HR, captured before deletion
Grievance “Lost” by HR
You raised a grievance about discrimination. HR acknowledged it. Months later, you’re made “redundant.” HR claims no record of your grievance exists, and your subject access request comes back incomplete.
Evidence needed: grievance email, HR acknowledgement, any follow-up correspondence
“Redundancy” That Isn’t Genuine
You returned from maternity leave, or raised a health and safety concern, or blew the whistle. Three weeks later, your role was “made redundant.” They’re already advertising your job on LinkedIn. In Osborn v Mothercare WhatsApp messages showed the redundancy was a sham, and £67,801 was awarded.
Evidence needed: your complaint, timing of redundancy, LinkedIn job advert for your role
Your employer controls all the evidence, unless you capture it first
Email servers, Teams workspaces, HR systems, appraisal databases, security pass logs and payroll records all live on your employer’s infrastructure. You can submit a subject access request under the UK GDPR, but your employer has one month to respond and the response can come back incomplete. Without independent, timestamped copies of your own, your tribunal claim depends entirely on what your employer chooses to disclose.
42,000 single tribunal claims in 2024/25. Average unfair dismissal award £13,749, median £6,746 (Ministry of Justice, 2023/24 award statistics). Discrimination and whistleblowing awards are uncapped.
Documented evidence changes the outcome long before the claim reaches a hearing.
Save Your Evidence, 7 Days FreeReal UK tribunal cases won on captured messages
Real outcomes. In each one, the evidence made the difference.
Brosnan v Coalo (2023). Mark Brosnan, a plumber on sick leave with a back injury, was left out of the work WhatsApp group used for safety updates. His manager said he “was not added because he was absent.” The same WhatsApp group carried racial harassment. The tribunal found disability discrimination and awarded £134,400 covering loss of earnings, injury to feelings and personal injury.
Source: Stephens Scown, GB News
Miluska v Roman Property Group (2025). Paula Miluska, a pregnant consultant, was dismissed by text message. Her employer sent a “deliberately vague” message ending with a jazz hands emoji. The text message itself was the evidence. The tribunal found the intent obvious: she was dismissed over pregnancy-related illness. The award was £93,616.74 for pregnancy discrimination and unfair dismissal.
Source: People Management, LBC
Osborn v Mothercare (2024). Nichola Osborn returned from maternity leave and within a month was told her role was “at risk of redundancy.” WhatsApp messages showed her managers had planned to replace her while she was still on leave. The tribunal called it a sham rather than a genuine redundancy and awarded £67,801, including £20,000 for injury to feelings.
Source: People Management, GB News
Borg-Neal v Lloyds Banking Group (2023). Carl Borg-Neal, a manager with dyslexia, was dismissed for gross misconduct after repeating an offensive word during a race education session. The evidence showed his dyslexia made him blurt words out. Lloyds failed to account for his disability. The total award exceeded £470,000, including £309,867 for future loss of earnings and £23,000 for the depression the dismissal caused.
Source: Aaron & Partners, GOV.UK Tribunal Judgment
All of these employees had one thing in common: they captured the evidence before it was too late.
Capture Your Evidence, 7 Days FreeWhat evidence do you need to prove unfair dismissal?
To prove unfair dismissal at an employment tribunal you need evidence that your employer either had no fair reason for the dismissal or did not follow a fair procedure (Employment Rights Act 1996, sections 98(1) to 98(4)). The specific evidence depends on your situation:
Note what the tribunal is actually deciding. Admissibility is rarely the fight, because rule 41(3) of the Employment Tribunal Procedure Rules 2024 provides: “The Tribunal is not bound by any rule of law relating to the admissibility of evidence in proceedings before the courts.” Your screenshot will almost certainly get in. The fight is over weight, and that is where an authenticated capture beats a picture of a screen.
Core evidence (all claims):
- • Employment contract / offer letter
- • Dismissal letter or redundancy notice
- • Performance reviews / appraisals
- • Payslips and benefits records
- • Any written communications about the dismissal
Situation-specific:
- • Sham redundancy: LinkedIn job adverts, selection scoring, consultation notes
- • Discrimination: WhatsApp/Teams messages, emails showing bias
- • Victimisation: grievance records, timing of dismissal against the complaint
- • Constructive dismissal: evidence of the breach before you resign
Critical: all of this evidence lives on your employer’s systems. The moment they dismiss you, they revoke access, and a subject access request takes a month. ProofSnap captures verifiable copies in about 41 seconds a page, before the lockout.
Your screenshot versus their legal team
You lodge a tribunal claim with a screenshot. Your employer answers with HR records, server logs and timestamped system data, plus a solicitor who argues your screenshot was fabricated. The tribunal will admit both. The question is which one it believes, and that is a question of weight.
Your Screenshot
- No proof of when it was taken
- Anyone can fake it in 30 seconds
- No way to verify it came from a real web page
- No audit trail, just a picture
- Just 1 file
- Their solicitor will tear it apart
ProofSnap Evidence Package
- Independent timestamp proving exactly when you captured it
- SHA-256 integrity check, so any later edit to the file is detected
- Full server details: URL, IP address, security certificate
- Forensic log and chain of custody recording who captured what, when and how
- 11 to 15 files: screenshot, page source, PDF report, video, metadata
- Verifiable by the other side, by your solicitor and by the tribunal, using the included scripts or the Trust Verifier
Legal basis: rule 41(3), Employment Tribunal Procedure Rules 2024 (SI 2024/1155), in force 6 January 2025 · compensatory award capped at £123,543 for dismissals on or after 6 April 2026 (Employment Rights (Increase of Limits) Order 2026), cap removed from 1 January 2027 under the Employment Rights Act 2025 · discrimination and whistleblowing awards uncapped
Employment tribunals cover Great Britain, that is England, Wales and Scotland. Northern Ireland has its own Industrial Tribunals and Fair Employment Tribunal under separate legislation, so the deadlines and figures on this page should be checked against Northern Irish rules if you work there.
Already dismissed, or can you see it coming? Capture these in the next 10 minutes
If you still have access to work systems, every minute matters, because once you are locked out the evidence is gone. If you have already been locked out, capture what is still reachable: forwarded emails, LinkedIn messages and any personal copies.
Your emergency capture checklist:
Why this matters even if you already have screenshots: Your employer’s solicitors will argue your screenshots are fabricated. It happened in Brosnan, Osborn, and hundreds of other cases. ProofSnap creates evidence that is far harder to dispute, because each capture is cryptographically sealed with a timestamp your solicitor can verify independently. That is the difference between a claim that turns on your word and one that turns on the record.
Do the maths:
$4.99 (approx. £3.80) to protect a claim in a category where the average award was £13,749 in 2023/24 (Ministry of Justice employment tribunal statistics). Discrimination and whistleblowing awards are uncapped. The 7-day trial is enough to gather a full set of evidence, and it requires a payment card.
Installation takes about 30 seconds. Your first capture takes under 2 minutes.
Already locked out of Teams, email, and VPN?
You can still capture critical evidence. Use ProofSnap on your personal computer to document:
Every piece of evidence you capture now strengthens your tribunal claim. You have 3 months less 1 day from the effective date of termination, extending to 6 months from October 2026. Do not let the clock run out before you have the evidence.
Is your redundancy genuine? Four checks you can run today
In Osborn v Mothercare, WhatsApp messages proved the “redundancy” was planned before the employee returned from maternity leave. The tribunal called it a “sham.” Here’s how to check yours:
1. Check their careers page and LinkedIn
Search for your job title on your employer’s website and LinkedIn. If they’re hiring for your role (or a suspiciously similar one), the redundancy may not be genuine. Capture it with ProofSnap before they take it down.
2. Check the selection criteria
Were you scored fairly? Were others in the “pool” genuinely considered? If you were the only one “at risk” and your role still exists, that is not a redundancy; it is an unfair dismissal.
3. Check the timing
Did the “redundancy” come shortly after you returned from maternity or parental leave, raised a grievance, reported a health and safety concern or made a protected disclosure? Timing is evidence.
4. Check your replacement
Is someone else now doing your work? A new recruit, a contractor, or your duties split among the people who remain? If the requirement for employees to do work of that kind has not “ceased or diminished”, the redundancy is not genuine under section 139 of the Employment Rights Act 1996.
Reading this on your phone?
ProofSnap is a browser extension, so you will need a laptop or desktop computer. Email this link to yourself and install ProofSnap tomorrow morning before work.
Email me the installation linkHow to bring an unfair dismissal claim, step by step
You have your ProofSnap evidence package. Now file your claim. Choose the path that matches your situation.
Step 1: Acas early conciliation (mandatory, free)
- 1. Notify Acas within 3 months less 1 day of your effective date of termination (Employment Rights Act 1996, section 111). This step is mandatory before any tribunal claim, and the limit rises to 6 months from October 2026.
- 2. Notifying Acas pauses your time limit. A conciliator then tries to resolve the dispute, free of charge. For notifications made on or after 1 December 2025 conciliation can run for up to 12 weeks, up from the previous 6 weeks.
- 3. If no agreement is reached, Acas issues an early conciliation certificate. From the date you receive it you have at least one month left to lodge your ET1.
Step 2: the employment tribunal claim (free to lodge)
- 1. After Acas conciliation, submit your ET1 to the employment tribunal. Lodging a claim is free: tribunal fees were quashed in 2017 in R (UNISON) v Lord Chancellor [2017] UKSC 51.
- 2. Attach your ProofSnap evidence package to demonstrate the strength of your case. The 11 to 15 files it contains, each with forensic metadata, carry significantly more weight than screenshots.
- 3. Your employer has 28 days to respond with its ET3. The tribunal then lists a preliminary hearing.
- 4. The tribunal caseload is under strain: single claim receipts rose 23% year on year to 42,000 in 2024/25 (Ministry of Justice, Tribunal Statistics Quarterly), so act early rather than wait for the deadline.
Subject access request: get your employer’s copy of the data
- 1. Under the UK GDPR, submit a subject access request to your employer, free of charge. Your employer must provide the personal data it holds about you within one month.
- 2. That includes emails, HR records, appraisals, disciplinary files, CCTV and internal messages that mention you.
- 3. If your employer does not comply, complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
- 4. A subject access request still takes a month. Data can go missing in that time. Your own copies mean you have evidence even if the disclosure comes back incomplete, and they show you exactly what is missing.
Employment solicitor (unfair dismissal, settlement negotiation)
- 1. Many employment solicitors offer a free first consultation, and some act on a conditional fee (no win, no fee) basis in strong cases.
- 2. Arrive with your ProofSnap evidence package. Solicitors triage cases by evidence quality, and a package of 11 to 15 files with hashes, a signed manifest and a chain of custody reads very differently from a folder of screenshots.
- 3. Alternatively, get free advice from Citizens Advice, your trade union, or Acas.
All of these paths require documented evidence. ProofSnap creates the forensic package that tribunals, Acas, and solicitors accept.
Start NowAcas early conciliation is free and mandatory, and it pauses your deadline
The Acas annual report for 2024/25 records more than 117,000 early conciliation cases, the highest figure since the pandemic and up 13,000 on the previous year, with 9 out of 10 resolved without an employment tribunal hearing. It is free, it is mandatory before any tribunal claim, and notifying Acas pauses the 3 months less 1 day clock.
Send your ProofSnap evidence package to the Acas conciliator. Documented, timestamped evidence gives the conciliator leverage to negotiate a better outcome.
Works with every workplace platform
If it opens in Chrome, ProofSnap can capture it.
ProofSnap is not affiliated with any employer or workplace platform. Platform names are listed for information only.
The settlement agreement trap: do not sign away your rights without evidence
Your employer offers a settlement agreement in exchange for waiving all claims. Before you sign, understand exactly what you are giving up, and what evidence you need in order to negotiate a better deal.
What they want you to sign:
- Waiver of all employment claims (unfair dismissal, discrimination)
- Non-disparagement clause (you can’t talk about what happened)
- Confidentiality (you can’t share the settlement terms)
- Agreed reference, often bland, and it limits what you can say later
Your legal protections:
- Independent legal advice required: the agreement is void without it
- Employers commonly pay a few hundred pounds towards your legal fees, though no statute fixes the amount
- The first £30,000 of a genuine termination payment is normally free of income tax
- Evidence of wrongdoing gives you leverage for a higher settlement
Capture the settlement agreement with ProofSnap before you sign. This creates a timestamped record of exactly what terms were offered, when, and by whom. If the terms change or your employer later disputes what was offered, you have proof.
What your evidence is worth in settlement negotiations:
The Vento bands were uprated with effect from 6 April 2026 by the Presidents of the Employment Tribunals: £1,300 to £12,600 (lower), £12,600 to £37,700 (middle), £37,700 to £62,900 (upper), with the most exceptional cases capable of exceeding £62,900. An injury to feelings award sits on top of compensation for lost earnings. Documented evidence of discrimination is what lets you negotiate from a position of strength.
Evidence disappears and the Acas deadline does not wait
- System access revoked within minutes, taking emails, Teams history and appraisals with it
- Tribunal: 3 months less 1 day. Acas first. Strictly enforced.
Start capturing evidence now
7-day free trial included with all plans. Cancel at any time.
7-day free trial, payment card required, cancel at any time
Essential
approx. £6.80
100 captures/month
- Evidence package of 11 to 15 files
- Video of capture process
- Provenance Certificate
- File Certification, 5 a month
- Blockchain timestamp
- eIDAS qualified timestamp
Regular use, archiving
Professional
approx. £12.90
200 captures/month
- Everything in Essential
- Blockchain (OpenTimestamps)
- File Certification, 15 a month
- eIDAS qualified timestamp
Blockchain timestamping, audit-grade
Enterprise
approx. £22.00
Unlimited captures
- Everything in Professional
- eIDAS qualified timestamp via Disig a.s., a Qualified Trust Service Provider on the EU Trusted List
- File Certification, 50 a month
- Email support, response within 1 working day
Litigation, compliance teams
Just been made redundant? Start here.
SnapPack: $4.99, one-off (approx. £3.80)
10 captures, a one-off purchase, no subscription and no auto-renewal. Credits are valid for 12 months.
Ten captures cover the whole checklist: appraisals, contract, HR emails, Teams messages, payslips, the dismissal letter, the settlement agreement and the LinkedIn advert for your role.
Get SnapPack, $4.99Annual plans cost $80, $160 and $280 (approx. £61, £122 and £213) instead of $107.88, $203.88 and $347.88, a saving of roughly a fifth to a quarter. All prices are charged in US dollars by Stripe; the sterling figures are approximate. See all pricing options
Would you rather not do it yourself? Our managed evidence capture service starts at $44.99 per URL (approx. £34) and falls to $29.80 per URL (approx. £23) on the larger bundles.
Not sure yet? Download a sample evidence package
Unfair dismissal evidence: frequently asked questions
Be precise about what the eIDAS presumption is worth in the United Kingdom. Article 41(2) of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014 gives a qualified electronic timestamp a presumption of the accuracy of its date and time and of the integrity of the data it is bound to. That presumption reaches a UK court as a matter of UK domestic law, not because EU law applies here: Article 24A of the Regulation as it has effect in UK law, inserted by SI 2019/89, treats a service qualified under the equivalent EU law as qualified for these purposes, and since 1 January 2024 that body of law is assimilated law rather than retained EU law. Two honest caveats. First, section 131 of the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025 lets the Secretary of State remove that recognition by regulations, so it is not permanent. Second, and more important, the presumption covers only the date, the time and the integrity of the bound data. It does not authenticate the exhibit, prove what the page actually said, prove the capture was complete, or identify who made it.
For an employment tribunal this matters less than you might think, which is why we do not build the case on it. A tribunal that is not bound by the rules of evidence is not going to turn on a statutory presumption either. What decides your claim is weight: a bare screenshot gets in and counts for little, while a hashed and signed package with a full chain of custody, verification scripts and a timestamp anyone can check counts for a great deal. ProofSnap issues the qualified timestamp through Disig a.s., a Qualified Trust Service Provider on the EU Trusted List.
Still have questions? Start with the free trial.
7 days. Full access. Cancel at any time. See the evidence package for yourself.
UK employment rights resources
Acas resolved 9 out of 10 of its 117,000 early conciliation cases in 2024/25 without a tribunal hearing (Acas annual report 2024/25). The system works, and it runs on documented evidence.
Acas
Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service. Free advice, mandatory early conciliation before tribunal claims.
Citizens Advice
Free employment law guidance. Covers unfair dismissal, redundancy, discrimination, and tribunal claims.
GOV.UK: making an employment tribunal claim
Official guide to making a claim. Free to file. ET1 form and process explained.
ICO: your data rights
Information Commissioner’s Office. Submit subject access requests and report data protection breaches.
EHRC
Equality and Human Rights Commission. Enforces the Equality Act 2010 and intervenes in discrimination cases.
GOV.UK: redundancy rights and pay
Statutory redundancy pay calculator, notice periods, consultation requirements.
Evidence guides by jurisdiction
In Australia? The deadline is far shorter: an unfair dismissal application must reach the Fair Work Commission within 21 days of the dismissal taking effect. See unfair dismissal evidence in Australia.