Ms N Clark and Mrs M Bell v Chief Constable of Derbyshire Constabulary and Chief Constable of West Midlands Police and 1 other — 2021

This was a preliminary hearing about jurisdiction. The Claimants had been required to retire under the Police Pensions Regulations 1987, had been awarded ill-health pensions and injury pensions, and had been refused disablement gratuities under the Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006. They wished to bring disability discrimination complaints under sections 15 and 19 of the Equality Act 2010 arising from that refusal.

The Tribunal held that the claims could not proceed through section 39 because the Claimants were no longer employees when they brought their claims. It also held that section 108 was not available, adopting the reasoning in Curry that the impugned conduct could not have occurred during the employment relationship because it arose from a scheme entered only after that relationship had ended.

The Tribunal held that section 61 did provide a jurisdictional gateway. It concluded that the Police (Injury Benefit) Regulations 2006 fell within the definition of an occupational pension scheme for these purposes, relying in particular on Johnson and on reading Regulations 11 and 12 together. The result was that the Claimants could pursue their section 15 and section 19 Equality Act complaints through section 61, with the merits left undecided.