Mr M Pollard v Aquinas Church of England Education Trust, and 3 others — 2020

This was an open preliminary hearing to decide whether the claimant's asserted belief in protecting the integrity and sanctity of the British education system was a protected philosophical belief under section 10 of the Equality Act 2010. The claimant said the belief was lifelong and went beyond a mere opinion about education. The respondents argued that what he described was an incoherent set of views, more like professional concerns or whistleblowing issues than a protected belief.

The tribunal applied the Grainger guidelines, as explained in Harron v Chief Constable of Dorset Police, and accepted that the claimant's concerns could amount to a weighty and substantial aspect of human life and behaviour. However, it found that his evidence and explanation of the belief were nebulous and verbose, and that he could not coherently define its content or parameters. On that basis, the tribunal held that the asserted belief did not satisfy the requirement that it be intelligible and capable of being understood.

The tribunal also observed that what the claimant was describing seemed closer to the protection afforded to whistleblowers than to a philosophical belief. It therefore concluded that the claimant did not hold a philosophical belief within the meaning of section 10 Equality Act 2010, and the discrimination complaint failed and was dismissed. No monetary remedy was awarded in this judgment.