Mr K Kelly-Fleming v The Northview Group Limited — 2019

The tribunal was dealing with an earlier unless order requiring further information by 12 September 2019. It found that the claimant's response on 12 September 2019 only dealt with part of the information requested and did not answer all of the outstanding questions, so there had been material non-compliance with the order. The tribunal accepted the explanation given in Mr Ryan Holman Carthew's witness statement as the factual account of how the information came to be provided in two tranches, but held that there was no good explanation for the delay and no good reason to excuse the default.

On the effect of the breach, the tribunal found that the respondent had been put to the trouble of chasing clarification, but the prejudice was limited and a fair trial remained possible. It therefore granted relief from the unless order and varied the compliance date to 11 October 2019.

The tribunal then considered whether the claimant had withdrawn any claims in the further information. It held that the phrase 'the claimant is no longer pursuing this head of claim' was not a withdrawal when used in relation to the reasonable adjustments complaint under section 20 Equality Act 2010 or the reference to section 39(2)(d) Equality Act 2010, but was an unambiguous withdrawal when used in relation to the section 15 discrimination arising from disability and section 19 indirect discrimination complaints. Applying rules 51 and 52 of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013, the tribunal dismissed those two claims. No monetary remedy was awarded.