S Swanson (employment consultant) For the v Abbeyfield Reading Society Limited Second Respondent: Kathleen Davis Third Respondent: Timothy Howe Fourth Respondent: David Magowan — 2023

B Yanquoi had been employed by Abbeyfield Reading Society Limited since 1996 and had been Home Manager at Abbeyfield House since 2002. At the hearing on 8 September 2023, Employment Judge Anderson considered the respondents' application to strike out the claimant's direct discrimination and harassment claims on the grounds of sex, age and race, together with the application to dismiss the third and fourth respondents. The decision dealt only with those discrimination claims; the claims for unfair dismissal, protected disclosure detriment and victimisation continued.

The tribunal held that the claimant's further and better particulars did not identify a sufficient causal link between the protected characteristics and the treatment complained of. The pleaded matters concerned disciplinary action from January 2021, the summary dismissal on 15 September 2021, and complaints to the Disclosure and Barring Service in autumn and winter 2021, but the claimant did not explain why those events were said to be discriminatory beyond relying on the fact that she was a black woman aged 62. The judge noted that the claimant had been given an opportunity to particularise the case, but the material filed still did not provide anything more than a repetition of the original allegations.