Mr. S McCreadie Ford v The Pensions Regulator — 2025

On 6 May 2025, Employment Judge Cawthray heard The Pensions Regulator's application to strike out part of Mr S McCreadie Ford's part-time worker complaints, or alternatively to require a deposit. The judge applied Rule 38 and Rule 40 of the Employment Tribunal Rules 2024 and the cited authorities on strike out and deposit orders, including Balls, Ukegheson, Mechkarov, Ezsias, Ahir, Cox, Hemdan, Wright and Van Rensburg. The application was refused in full because, on the material then before the tribunal, it could not be said that the complaints had no reasonable prospect of success or only little reasonable prospect of success.

The part-time worker complaints were brought under Regulations 5 and 7 of the Part-Time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000. The judge recorded seven less-favourable-treatment allegations between 5 December 2022 and 29 March 2023, and nine detriment allegations between 11 May 2023 and 12 July 2023. The judgment states that no evidence on time limits was heard at this stage, so the tribunal did not decide whether any part of the claim was out of time, and it left comparator and causation questions for the final hearing.

The judgment also dealt with disability status for the Equality Act claim. The respondent accepted that Mr Ford had anxiety as a mental impairment, but not that it met the statutory definition of disability. The tribunal found that he had experienced anxiety symptoms since 2017, that the symptoms worsened from late 2022, and that in April and June 2023 they became severe enough that he was unable to work. Applying section 6 Equality Act 2010, Aderemi, SCA Packaging, Cruickshank, Alao, J v DLA Piper and the disability guidance, the tribunal held that he was a disabled person from 2018. No monetary remedy was awarded in this judgment, and the substantive merits of the underlying claims were not decided here.