Mr S Corby v Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service Heard in Leeds — 2023

This was a preliminary issue judgment in Mr S Corby's ongoing claim against the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service. The tribunal heard evidence from the claimant and considered whether his asserted beliefs fell within section 10(2) of the Equality Act 2010. It applied the Grainger criteria, with reference to the authorities cited by the parties, including Gray v Mulberry, McClintock, Forstater, and R (Williamson), and reminded itself that it was not to decide the merits of the beliefs.

The tribunal found that the claimant genuinely held his beliefs on race and racial equality. It accepted that those beliefs were more than an opinion or viewpoint, concerned a weighty and substantial aspect of human life and behaviour, and had the required cogency, seriousness, cohesion and importance. It described the claimant's position as being that racial equality is best advanced by valuing people by character rather than race, and by rejecting separatism, segregation and ethnocentrism.

By contrast, the tribunal held that the claimant's views on sex and feminism did not satisfy the second Grainger criterion. It found that those views were a response to a particular article and amounted to an opinion rather than an underlying philosophical belief. The tribunal did not accept that those views formed part of the same belief system as the claimant's beliefs on race.

The tribunal therefore held that the claimant's beliefs on race and racial equality were protected philosophical beliefs, but his views on sex/feminism were not. The written judgment records only this preliminary issue; the substantive claim remained ongoing and no remedy was awarded in this decision.