Mrs. Kaitlyn Howarth v Ministry of Defence — 2023

The claimant, an American national, had worked for the respondent as a civil servant from 2016 until July 2021. The Tribunal found that the Civil Service Nationality Rules and the related statutory provisions applied at the material time and prohibited her appointment. It held that the purported employment contract was void from the start because it was not permitted by statute.

On that basis, the Tribunal held that the claimant was not an employee with an enforceable contract for the purposes of the unfair dismissal and wrongful dismissal claims. Those claims were struck out because they had no reasonable prospect of success.

For the race discrimination claim, described as based specifically on nationality, the Tribunal held that paragraph 5 of Schedule 22 Equality Act 2010 provided a statutory defence for implementing rules restricting Crown employment by nationality. The victimisation claim was also struck out: the Tribunal found that the respondent's attempts to explore ways for the claimant to remain employed were inconsistent with the case that the Civil Service Nationality Rules had been implemented because she had raised an earlier grievance. The pregnancy or maternity discrimination claim and holiday pay claim were withdrawn and dismissed on withdrawal.