Mrs S Warwick-Baker v The Governing Body of Frederick Bremer School and 1 other — 2019

This was a judgment on a preliminary hearing. The tribunal vacated the four-day hearing due to start on 12 March 2019 and relisted the matter for a six-day liability-only hearing in November and December 2019. It also directed that any remedy hearing would be separate because of the medical dimension to remedy.

The tribunal considered the legal position on whistleblowing detriment claims under section 47B of the Employment Rights Act 1996, including whether an individual respondent could be added. It recorded that the claimant's case was that she made protected disclosures, suffered detriments, became ill, was absent from work, and was then dismissed under the school's attendance procedure. The alleged detriments were said principally to have come from the headteacher, who was not part of the dismissal decision-making process.

The tribunal allowed the claimant's amendment in part, permitting the section 47B detriment amendment and the inclusion of the London Borough of Waltham Forest as second respondent. It refused the application to add Ms Smith as an individual respondent, on the basis that this was unnecessary in circumstances where the existing respondents, particularly the second respondent, were unconditionally accepting liability for whatever award might be made in the claimant's favour. No substantive liability findings were made on the whistleblowing or dismissal claims.