Mrs C Aquilina v Kent Catholic Schools’ Partnership — 2022

Mrs C Aquilina was employed as headteacher and was dismissed on 6 October 2020 after a disciplinary process about emails she had sent to Canon Ivan Aquilina, her husband, containing personal, sensitive and confidential pupil information. The tribunal found that the principal reason for dismissal was conduct. It rejected the claimant's case that the real reason was hostility towards her and her husband or a wish to move the school to an executive leadership model.

Applying s.98 ERA 1996 and the approach in British Home Stores Limited v Burchell, the tribunal found the respondent had reasonable grounds to believe misconduct had occurred because the emails contained sensitive data and Canon Aquilina was a third party for these purposes; his pastoral presence in the school did not justify the sharing. However, the investigation was materially flawed: Ms Boniface had prior involvement and had effectively prejudged the matter; Dr Hughes was relied on despite known hostility; and the claimant was not asked to identify witnesses at the investigation stage, contrary to policy. The tribunal held these failings took the investigation outside the range of reasonable responses, so the unfair dismissal claim succeeded.

On causation and remedy, the tribunal found there was a 100% chance the claimant would have been dismissed anyway if a fair process had been followed, because the email content and Canon Aquilina's role still established misconduct and she was already subject to a live final written warning. The compensatory award was therefore reduced to nil. The judge's initial remedy view was a basic award of £2,017.50 after a 50% reduction, with a further 15% ACAS uplift discussed, but the parties were directed to try to agree remedy and, if needed, return for a remedy hearing. The wrongful dismissal claim failed because the tribunal held the claimant had committed a repudiatory breach of contract and KCSP was entitled not to pay notice.