Claimant v Ministry of Defence and others — 2023

Mr A Anderson was a soldier in the British Army from 27 January 2004 until his medical discharge on 2 March 2022. He presented a claim on 24 May 2022 alleging unlawful disability discrimination and unlawful race discrimination against the Ministry of Defence and six individual service personnel. At the public preliminary hearing on 2 March 2023, the judge noted the Schedule 9 exclusion for armed forces claims and Mr Anderson agreed to withdraw the disability complaints, which were dismissed upon withdrawal.

The tribunal then dealt with the race discrimination allegations. It rejected the respondents' section 121 Equality Act 2010 argument that the claims could not proceed because they had not been included in a service complaint. After reviewing the claim form, further information and two admissibility letters, the tribunal found 33 individual allegations of race discrimination in the pleaded case and those letters, with the earliest dated 5 June 2017 and the latest in March 2020.

The tribunal accepted, however, that the race discrimination claims were presented well outside the six-month time limit in section 123 Equality Act 2010. It applied the authorities cited in the judgment, including Robertson v Bexley Community Centre, Chief Constable of Lincoln Police v Caston, British Coal Corporation v Keeble and Adedeji v University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, and concluded that it was not just and equitable to extend time. In reaching that conclusion, the tribunal noted the length of the delay, found the claimant's explanation inadequate, observed that he had been able to use the service complaints process, had support from a HR consultant and his partner, and considered that the age of the allegations would cause prejudice because memories had faded. The race discrimination allegations were therefore struck out and dismissed, and no remedy was awarded.