Case 1400464/2024 · Employment Tribunal
Melanie Tregenza Dancer v Ministry of Justice and 1 other — 2024
- Case reference
- 1400464/2024
- Decision date
- 23 August 2024
- Jurisdiction
- England & Wales
- Judge
- Employment Judge Liz Ord
- Venue
- Croydon
- Panel members
- Judith Clewlow, Vicki Gibbs
Parties
3 namedClaimant
Melanie Tregenza Dancer
Respondents
Key findings
Tribunal's reasoningThe claimant, a magistrate, brought complaints of discrimination arising from disability, direct disability discrimination, disability-related harassment and victimisation following an incident on 22 March 2022 about her request to sit on the left of the bench, and subsequent handling of complaints and conduct processes. The respondents conceded disability with fibromyalgia at all material times and anxiety and depression from March 2023.
The tribunal found that Ms Simmens asked one question about the claimant's disability to understand possible adjustments, that Ms Swift's complaint was about the perceived manner in which the claimant spoke to and treated her, and that Mr Willsher's communications and referral steps were attempts to resolve or progress the complaint process. It found no evidence that the relevant conduct was because of disability, because of something arising from disability, or because of protected acts, and it did not find the harassment allegations made out.
All decided complaints were dismissed. The judgment expressly recorded that three additional allegations from March to August 2024, allowed as an amendment at a case management hearing, remained to be heard.
Claims and outcomes
3 findings recorded| Claim type | Issue or finding | Outcome | Protected characteristic | Award |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Disability discrimination | Complaints of discrimination arising from disability and direct discrimination on grounds of disability were dismissed. Three additional allegations from March to August 2024 remained to be heard and are not treated as decided claims in this extraction. | Dismissed | Disability | — |
| Harassment | Harassment on grounds of disability was dismissed. Three additional allegations from March to August 2024 remained to be heard and are not treated as decided claims in this extraction. | Dismissed | Disability | — |
| Victimisation | Victimisation was dismissed. Three additional allegations from March to August 2024 remained to be heard and are not treated as decided claims in this extraction. | Dismissed | — | — |
Legal tests applied
5 references- Equality Act 2010 section 13
- Equality Act 2010 section 15
- Equality Act 2010 section 26
- Equality Act 2010 section 27
- Guidance on Matters to be Taken Into Account in Determining Questions relating to the Definition of Disability (2011)
Official outcome judgment PDF
Gov.uk primary recordThe official judgment PDF on gov.uk contains the tribunal's outcome, reasoning, and any remedy details. Where this page does not yet show extracted outcomes for every claim, use the PDF as the authoritative source.
Published on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
How we got this data
Case essentials (reference, date, judge, venue, country, claim categories) are extracted from the structured metadata gov.uk publishes alongside each decision. Parties and monetary figures are extracted from the judgment PDF text. Key findings and per-claim outcomes require a second extraction pass that is not yet complete for this case — until then, the primary source linked above is the authoritative record. See full methodology.
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