Claimant v Lancaster City Council — 2022

This was a preliminary hearing on the respondent's application to strike out Mr J Lingard's appeal against an improvement notice dated 28 August 2020. The appellant did not attend and was not represented; the tribunal proceeded in his absence under rule 47 after attempts to contact him by telephone and email were unsuccessful.

The tribunal recorded that the improvement notice had already been withdrawn by the respondent on 30 October 2020. On that basis, there was no extant notice capable of being cancelled, affirmed, or modified under section 24 of the Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974. The tribunal also noted that the only additional relief sought by the appellant appeared to be an apology and publicity about the withdrawal of the notice, but those were not remedies the tribunal could grant on this appeal.

The tribunal therefore held that it could not determine the appeal on its merits and had not explored the merits at the hearing. It struck out the appeal under rule 37 of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013 on the basis that it had no reasonable prospect of success.