Mr MA Ghani v NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit — 2023

The hearing on 31 July 2023 before Employment Judge Livesey concerned two preliminary matters in Mr MA Ghani's case against NHS South, Central and West Commissioning Support Unit: whether certain discussions in 2016 were protected by the without prejudice rule, and whether the claimant should be permitted to amend his claim. The tribunal found that the grievance raised on 4 July 2016 created a dispute between the parties, and that the meeting on 30 September 2016 was a genuine without prejudice discussion aimed at resolving that dispute. It also accepted that the claimant had agreed to proceed on that basis.

The tribunal rejected the suggestion that the unambiguous impropriety exception applied. It ordered the notes of the 30 September meeting and the 4 October 2016 email to be admitted only in redacted form, and prevented oral evidence about any offers said to have been made on 13 July and 30 September 2016. On that basis it dismissed the allegations at paragraphs 2.2.11 and 3.1.11 of the case summary, on the footing that the treatment complained of was the making of the offers discussed in the without prejudice meetings.

The claimant's amendment application was refused. The tribunal found the proposed additions were poorly pleaded, in some cases undated, and did not clearly identify the legal basis or alleged perpetrators. It held that most of the proposed amendments were significantly out of time, that some issues were already covered by the existing claim or list of issues, and that allowing the rest would disrupt the hearing timetable and require fresh evidence and disclosure. The final hearing remained listed for September 2023, and the tribunal said the claimant could revisit matters already within the claim form but missing from the list of issues at the end of the hearing.