Ms Rebecca Knight v Department for Work and Pensions — 2023

This was a preliminary judgment on the respondent's applications. The tribunal refused to strike out the claims on the basis of the difference between the respondent named on the ACAS certificate and the ET1, finding that the claimant, a litigant in person, had made a technical error and that it would not be in the interests of justice to strike out the claims on that ground.

The direct sex discrimination claim was struck out. The tribunal took the claimant's case at its highest, including her assertion that menopause was intrinsically linked to sex, but concluded that the pleaded case did not show that dismissal for misconduct said to flow from menopause-related matters was the same as dismissal because of sex. The tribunal also found that the claimant had not identified the required Madarassy "something more" beyond stating that she would have been treated differently had she been a man.

The tribunal refused to strike out or make a deposit order on the discrimination arising from disability claim. It found that there were factual disputes about whether the claimant's state of being "not herself" or "not thinking" arose from disability, whether that caused the unauthorised searches, and whether dismissal was justified as a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim. Those matters required evidence and assessment at a final hearing.