Mr A Bains v Sussex Partnership NHS Foundation Trust — 2025

The tribunal first refused the claimant's application to amend the claim to add allegations based on the rejection of his grievance on 17 May 2024 and the alleged failure to deal with his grievance appeal. It held that these were new complaints raised very substantially out of time, that they could have been included earlier, and that the explanation that they had been omitted because of lack of legal representation and stress-related ill health was not sufficient.

On jurisdiction, the tribunal found that the last act relied on for the existing claims was the referral to the NMC on 9 November 2023. The ordinary three-month time limit therefore expired on 8 February 2024. Early conciliation was not started until 9 April 2024, so it did not extend time, and the ET1 presented on 21 June 2024 was more than four months late.

For the protected disclosure detriment complaints, the tribunal found the claimant had not shown it was not reasonably practicable to present the claim in time. For the Equality Act complaints, it found the claimant had not shown that a just and equitable extension should be granted, taking into account the lack of a good reason for delay and the likely prejudice to the respondent from the passage of time. The tribunal therefore concluded it had no jurisdiction to hear the claim and dismissed it.