Mr A Wisdom v The Secretary of State For Justice Heard: by CVP in Watford — 2025

Mr A Wisdom, an area manager for Approved Premises within HM Prison and Probation Service, brought a Working Time Regulations claim about his out-of-hours stand-by duties for the week 27 March 2023 to 3 April 2023. The tribunal accepted the evidence of Mr Wisdom and Ms Orlebar, noted an earlier 2022 decision on a similar issue, but held that the earlier decision did not prevent it determining the case on its own facts. It found that the stand-by arrangement required the claimant to respond within 15 minutes, remain within about one hour of the Approved Premises, and complete recall-related work and notes during the stand-by period.

Applying the authorities cited in the judgment, the tribunal held that the period from 17:25 to 01:00 was working time because the frequency, unpredictability, and duration of calls meant the claimant had to remain available to work continuously and could not properly use that period as rest. It held that the period from 01:00 to 09:00 was rest time because the evidence of disturbance after 01:00 was not frequent enough to make that period working time. It also found that daytime weekend hours were generally rest time, although Saturday 1 April 2023 was an exception because calls spanned much of the day.

The tribunal accepted the respondent's reliance on regulation 21(c), finding that the Approved Premises context involved continuity of service provision for high-risk residents and public protection. It therefore found no breach of regulation 10(1) for the relevant period. The claim nevertheless succeeded because the tribunal found the respondent breached regulation 24(a) and (b): compensatory rest was not sufficiently afforded or protected, late starts were only occasionally permitted, and there was no effective mechanism to ensure equivalent rest for the lost rest time. Remedy was not determined and was listed to be dealt with separately.