Ms A Edwards v HM Revenue and Customs and 4 others — 2019

The underlying proceedings included direct race discrimination, harassment, victimisation and unfair dismissal claims against HM Revenue & Customs and individual respondents. The case was compromised through ACAS on terms under which the claimant withdrew all claims against all respondents. The tribunal did not decide the merits of those underlying claims.

The second respondent applied for a preparation time order, arguing among other things that the claimant had acted vexatiously, disruptively or unreasonably and that the claims had no reasonable prospect of success. The tribunal rejected those arguments, finding that it was not appropriate to make concluded findings on the incident, that the harassment allegation could not be treated as having no reasonable prospect of success, and that the claimant's other procedural conduct did not meet the threshold alleged.

The tribunal found unreasonable conduct only in the claimant's failure to notify the second respondent promptly that the case had settled and that the claims were withdrawn. It found he should have been notified by 6.00pm on 6 February 2019 and that he then spent four further hours preparing. A preparation time order of £152 was made, calculated as four hours at £38 per hour.