Mr M Hynes Ms D Jones Ms S Garrett v G4S Care & Justice Services (UK) Limited — 2019

At the closed preliminary hearing on 18 December 2019, Employment Judge Blackwell considered the Claimants' application for an unless order alleging that the Respondent had failed to comply with paragraph 3.3 of Employment Judge Camp's orders dated 31 August 2019. Those orders required the Respondent to answer questions about each alleged protected disclosure and each alleged detriment, including whether the disclosures were made, whether they were accepted as protected disclosures, and the Respondent's version of events on each detriment.

Judge Blackwell said the Respondent's Scott Schedules and related correspondence ran to more than 180 pages and accepted that there were deficiencies in the responses, but held that those matters were for the full tribunal to take into account at the liability hearing. The Judge rejected the submission that the material was so inadequate that an unless order was required, finding that the responses taken as a whole complied with Judge Camp's orders because they enabled the Claimants to understand the Respondent's case. The application was refused because, in the Judge's view, Mr Hynes was effectively seeking a mini-trial on liability, which was not consistent with the overriding objective.