Miss P Teelock v Secretary of State for Work & Pensions — 2025

The only live claim was unfair dismissal. The claimant had previously received a final written warning for inappropriate access to DWP records. A later Internal Abuse Team report identified one access, on 23 December 2022, to her brother's record through Searchlight using her account. The claimant denied making the access and said no one else had access to her computer or smartcard.

The tribunal found that the dismissing manager genuinely believed the claimant had committed misconduct, had reasonable grounds for that belief, and had carried out as much investigation as was reasonable in the circumstances. The audit material evidenced the access, and the tribunal considered that further evidence about what happened after the access was not reasonably necessary given the allegation was access without authority or legitimate business reason.

The tribunal accepted that there were procedural imperfections, including the investigation meeting invite referring to two accesses rather than one and the investigation manager not producing a separate investigation report. It found those matters did not undermine the overall fairness of the process. The tribunal held that dismissal was within the range of reasonable responses because the further misconduct occurred while a final written warning for similar conduct was live, and the unfair dismissal complaint was dismissed.