Compensation For Injury to Feelings Increased: Vento Band Changes From 6 April 2025

New guidance by the presidents of the Employment Tribunals of England & Wales and Scotland has been released. Their Eight, and latest, Addendum has revealed the new Vento Bands, which will be used to determine compensation for injury to feelings awards in 2025/2026.

What Are Vento Bands?

Vento Bands are guidelines established by the Employment Tribunal to determine the compensation for injury to feelings in discrimination and whistleblowing cases.

First determined in Vento v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire (hence, getting the name ‘Vento’ bands), these help categorise claims into three bands:

  1. Lower Bands: For less serious cases, where discrimination has been an isolated or one-off occurrence
  2. Middle Bands: For cases of moderate seriousness that do not merit an award in the upper band. While these are impactful, the discriminatory act may not be severe or prolonged – unlike the cases in the upper band
  3. Upper Band: Includes the most serious cases, where the discrimination has been severe and continued for a lengthy period of time.

What Are the New Vento Bands?

Released on 27 March, the presidential guidance stated that bands will be applied to determine compensation for injury to feelings on claims presented on or after 6 April 2025. As per the Eighth Addendum, the latest Vento Bands have seen a slight increase since last year.

The new bands are as follows:

  1. Lower Band: £1,200 to 12,100
  2. Middle Band: £12,100 to £36,400
  3. Upper Band: £36,400 to £60,700

Additionally, there is a possibility to exceed £60,6700 in exceptional cases.

What is Injury to Feelings?

An injury to feelings award is meant to compensate claimants for the hurt or distress they have suffered because of a discriminatory act. A claimant doesn’t need to have suffered any financial loss to claim for injury to feelings.

Since this is injury to ‘feelings’, the claimant doesn’t need to prove they suffered any physical or medical injury. Here, the Employment Tribunal will assess the distress suffered and attribute it to one of the Vento Bands (as stated above) to accurately determine the compensation.

It is important to note that this kind of compensation is primarily awarded for successful discrimination, harassment, and victimisation claims. Often, compensation for injury to feelings can also be claimed if the employee has suffered a detriment after whistleblowing.

As such, claims for compensation for injury to feelings cannot be made in cases that only deal with financial loss like unfair dismissal, unpaid wages claims, etc.

How is the Compensation for Injury to Feelings Assessed?

When determining the band for compensation for injury to feelings, the Employment Tribunal will generally rely on multiple factors such as:

  1. How severe the discriminatory act or harassment was
  2. How long the claimant suffered because of it
  3. The degree of hurt caused by the action
  4. The position of the person who caused the injury to feelings
  5. If the claimant was suffering from any medical conditions that were further impacted
  6. The impact of the act on the claimant’s career

Each case is assessed individually, so Employment Tribunal decisions may not be the same for every case.

Getting in Touch with Redmans Solicitors

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