Dr A Kear v Bournemouth University — 2025

This was a preliminary hearing before Employment Judge P Cadney at Bristol on 12 December 2024 to determine whether the claimant's claims should be struck out as having no reasonable prospect of success, or made subject to a deposit order, and to give further case management directions. The claimant had pursued claims of direct sex discrimination and public interest disclosure detriment, and had been permitted by EJ Livesey to amend to add a claim of automatic unfair dismissal under s103A ERA 1996 following his dismissal on 22 May 2024.

The tribunal struck out the direct sex discrimination claims as having no reasonable prospect of success, and dismissed the public interest disclosure detriment claims on the same basis. In relation to the whistleblowing detriment claims, the tribunal found that, despite EJ Roper's earlier directions, the claimant had failed to assert any causal link between any protected disclosure and any detriment, with the alleged detriments often being framed as the underlying subject matter of the disclosures or their consequences, which the tribunal held was bound to fail as a matter of law.

No order was made in respect of the automatic unfair dismissal claim, as no response had yet been entered and the tribunal considered it was not possible to assess its prospects of success. The respondent was directed to serve a response to that claim within 28 days, with further directions to follow.