Case 2600417/2021 · Employment Tribunal

Mr D Hooper v The Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police — 2022

Case reference: 2600417/2021
Decision date: 24 May 2022
Jurisdiction: England & Wales
Judge: Employment Judge P Britton

Indexed: 20 May 2026

Parties

2 named

Claimant

Mr D Hooper

Respondent

The Chief Constable of Nottinghamshire Police

Key findings

Tribunal's reasoning

This was an open preliminary hearing on the respondent's application for strike out or deposit orders. The claimant, a police sergeant with caring responsibilities for his disabled wife, brought claims of victimisation, direct disability discrimination by association, and harassment arising from management discussions about flexible working, overtime, record keeping, and a Police Conduct Regulations investigation.

The tribunal found that most of the challenged management actions were supported by the contemporaneous documents. It considered that concerns about extensive overtime, limited records of work done during overtime, and the compatibility of the claimant's caring responsibilities with his stated working pattern provided an objective basis for scrutiny and investigation. It found that the claimant had not provided a sustainable comparator for the direct discrimination claim, including in relation to another sergeant and the issuing of a Practice Requiring Improvement.

The victimisation claim was dismissed because, although the 28 July 2020 email was potentially capable of being a protected act, the tribunal found no reasonable prospect of proving that the investigation or related steps were taken because of it. The direct disability discrimination claim was dismissed in full. The harassment claim was dismissed except for the allegation concerning the attendance support meeting and comments or notes dated 17-21 July 2020; the tribunal considered that issue required evidence and did not make a deposit order.

Claims and outcomes

3 findings recorded

Claim type	Issue or finding	Outcome	Protected characteristic	Award
Victimisation	Dismissed as having no prospect of success. The tribunal treated the claimant's 28 July 2020 email as potentially capable of being a protected act, but found the investigation was objectively justified on the contemporaneous documents and that the pleaded causal link had no reasonable prospect of success.	Dismissed	—	—
Disability discrimination	Direct disability discrimination by association with the claimant's disabled wife was dismissed as having no reasonable prospect of success. The tribunal found the relied-on comparators could not be sustained and that the contemporaneous documents did not support less favourable treatment because of disability.	Dismissed	Disability	—
Harassment	All harassment allegations were dismissed save for the allegation concerning the attendance support meeting and related comments/notes dated 17-21 July 2020, including the phrase about the claimant discharging his duties with the 'distraction of caring'. That remaining allegation was allowed to proceed and no deposit order was made.	Other	Disability	—

Legal tests applied

9 references

Official outcome judgment PDF

Gov.uk primary record

The official judgment PDF on gov.uk contains the tribunal's outcome, reasoning, and any remedy details. Where this page does not yet show extracted outcomes for every claim, use the PDF as the authoritative source.

Published on gov.uk under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

How we got this data

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