Ms K Langley v North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust — 2023

Ms Langley worked for North East Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust from 19 April 2022 to 10 May 2022. She failed the mandatory training assessments and re-sits for the 999/111 service, where a pass mark of 70% was required, and her employment ended on 10 May 2022. In her ET1, presented after early conciliation, she said in general terms that the heavy writing demands of the training aggravated her arthritis and led to the failed tests, but she did not particularise the claim or identify with clarity what form of disability discrimination she was alleging.

The tribunal recorded repeated attempts by the respondent and the tribunal to obtain further information. The respondent asked for further particulars, Judge Arullendran ordered the claimant to provide them by 27 January 2023, and the claimant did not do so, save for sending an incomplete consultant's letter. She also failed to attend the 31 January 2023 preliminary hearing and later gave inconsistent explanations for that absence. She then failed to attend the public preliminary hearing on 15 June 2023, and only contacted the tribunal after it had already tried to reach her on the morning of the hearing.

Applying Rule 37 of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013, and having regard to Barber v Royal Bank of Scotland Plc and Bolch v Chipman, Employment Judge Sweeney struck out the disability discrimination claim. The judge found serious default, unreasonable conduct, and that the claim had not been actively pursued. He also concluded that a fair hearing was no longer possible because the claim remained insufficiently specified and the respondent did not know the case it had to meet. The judge considered but rejected a costs order as an alternative sanction, and noted that the ET1 had been presented out of time, so any extension would have required a just and equitable decision, which was not a material basis for the strike-out decision.