The Vento Bands, used to provide guidance for injury to feelings awards, increased on 6 April 2025.
New Vento Bands
For claims brought on or after 6 April 2025 the Vento Bands are:
- Lower Band: £1,200 to £12,100 (less serious cases)
- Middle Band: £12,100 to £36,400 (cases that do not merit an award in the upper band)
- Upper Band: £36,400 to £60,700 (the most serious cases)
Awards of over £60,700 will only be made in very exceptional cases.
What are Vento Bands?
The Court of Appeal in Vento v Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police [2003] established the guidelines for determining the amount of compensation to be given for injured feelings. These guidelines known as the Vento Bands apply to discrimination and whistleblowing cases brought in the Employment Tribunals.
The Vento Bands comprise of three different tiers known as the lower band, middle band, and upper band. The lower band relates to less serious cases of discrimination, such as where the act of discrimination is an isolated incident or one-off case. The middle band relates to more serious cases of discrimination, but cases that do not merit an award at the highest band. Finally, the upper band relates to the most serious cases of discrimination, such as ongoing harassment. In the most exceptional cases an award for injury to feelings can exceed the top of this band.
What employers need to know
The purpose of an injury to feelings award is to compensate a Claimant for the hurt and distress caused from the discriminatory action. However, this award is not intended to punish the wrongdoer. The awards are intended to not be so high as to 'amount to a windfall' but not so low to diminish respect for the policy of anti-discrimination law. Importantly, an injury to feelings award can be made regardless of whether the Claimant has suffered any financial loss.
In assessing which band a case falls under, the Employment Tribunal takes into account several factors to establish the effect on the individual. For example, the seriousness of the claim, the degree of stress caused and any personal circumstances, such as medical conditions.
The significance of evidence in supporting a claim for injury to feelings, along with the need to consider multiple factors has been recently demonstrated in the case of Eddie Stobart Ltd v Graham [2025]. In this case the Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) reduced an excessive injury to feelings award of £10,000 to £2,000. The amount was reduced as there was a 'degree of upset' but limited evidence of the extent of the injury. The EAT held that an award for £10,000 was excessive, and held the Tribunal had not provided an explanation as to how it had assessed the seriousness of the Claimant's injury to award a figure in the middle Vento Band. There was limited evidence of the Claimant's injury. For example, there was no evidence to suggest that there had been any adverse effect on the Claimant's work, or impact on her personal or quality of life. Therefore, this could only have been a lower band Vento case.
This highlighted that evidence must be provided in support of any injury to feelings claim. The Tribunal should be compensating only for the injury suffered, and not the manner of the discrimination. This case also shows that the EAT may be prepared to overturn an award where it is categorised within the 'wrong' band.
As always when it comes to trying to reduce exposure to potential discrimination claims, it is critical that employers have thorough employment policies, procedures and training in place.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.
