GOV.UK's notice on submitting matters to the Central Arbitration Committee, last updated on 10 June 2026, states that all applications and complaints to the CAC should first be submitted electronically to enquiries@cac.gov.uk. The page was originally published on 17 March 2020, so the current instruction is not a new statutory scheme but the live filing direction now shown on the official government page. (gov.uk)
The CAC is an independent body with statutory powers. According to its GOV.UK profile, it resolves collective disputes in England, Scotland and Wales and deals with areas including statutory trade union recognition, disclosure of information for collective bargaining, applications and complaints linked to information and consultation arrangements, certain European Works Council matters, and voluntary arbitration in collective disputes. That broader remit explains why a single submission route matters in practice. (gov.uk)
Read narrowly, the update is an administrative instruction on where parties should send paperwork at the start of a case. The notice does not set out any fresh legal test, altered deadline or revised jurisdiction. On its face, the emphasis is procedural: parties are being directed to an electronic first point of contact rather than being left to infer the correct route from older forms or correspondence. (gov.uk)
Other CAC material on GOV.UK points in the same direction. The committee's complaints procedure says most service complaints can be taken up with the person handling the matter, but otherwise directs users to enquiries@cac.gov.uk. Separate guidance on information and consultation applications also uses the same address. Taken together, the published material indicates a consistent email-first intake approach across both general complaints and at least some formal case types. (gov.uk)
For employers, trade unions and employee representatives, the practical implication is straightforward. Initial submissions should be assembled in electronic form and sent through the published mailbox so that the committee has a clear starting record. That is an inference from the submission instruction rather than a separate rule stated by the CAC, but it fits the committee's case-handling role and the email route repeated across its GOV.UK guidance. (gov.uk)
For policy tracking, this item is best read as an operational update rather than a substantive labour relations development. The main point is limited but important for live cases: the official GOV.UK position, as of 10 June 2026, is that applications and complaints to the CAC should first be submitted electronically to enquiries@cac.gov.uk. That gives parties a current filing instruction, even though the notice itself does not alter the legal framework. (gov.uk)