Ms Jane Barnes v The Campaign for Drawing (t/a The Big Draw) and 2 others — 2024

This judgment concerns the Claimant's application for interim relief under section 128 of the Employment Rights Act 1996, on the basis that the principal reason for her dismissal was that she had made protected disclosures within the meaning of section 103A. The Claimant was Executive Director of the First Respondent charity from 17 August 2022 on an annual salary of £36,000, and was dismissed in the context of significant funding difficulties following the loss of the charity's major US funder, Concepts, from January 2024.

Applying the "pretty good chance of success" test from Taplin v C Shippam Ltd and Ministry of Justice v Sarfraz, Employment Judge Gardiner assessed the three alleged qualifying disclosures (including emails of 14 December 2023 and 15 January 2024, and a communication regarding the need to hold an AGM). The Judge concluded that the Claimant did not have a pretty good chance of showing that any of the three alleged disclosures were protected disclosures, in particular as regards the reasonable belief that the disclosures were made in the public interest under the Chesterton test.

On causation, while the Judge accepted there was an arguable case that the dismissal was at least influenced by qualifying disclosures, he did not accept the Claimant had a pretty good chance of showing this was the principal reason for dismissal. He cited the Respondent's significant financial difficulties, the need for urgent cost savings, the redundancy of the only other employee at the same time, the involvement of Croner in the redundancy exercise, the five-month gap between the alleged disclosure and dismissal, and the apparent absence of internal references to the relevant emails. The application for interim relief was accordingly dismissed.