Ms K Johnston v The Scottish Ministers — 2025

The claimant was employed as a Residential Officer at HMP Grampian and was summarily dismissed after an audit showed she had accessed numerous prisoner records, including records of prisoners outside her area of responsibility and outside HMP Grampian. The respondent said the dismissal was for conduct relating to inappropriate access to prisoner records without a legitimate operational need or authorisation.

For unfair dismissal, the tribunal found conduct was a potentially fair reason under the Employment Rights Act 1996. Applying Burchell, it found the respondent genuinely believed the claimant was guilty of misconduct, had reasonable grounds for that belief, and had carried out a reasonable investigation through the audit, Conduct Unit investigation, disciplinary hearing and appeal. The tribunal rejected the claimant's arguments that there was evidence of bias by Mr Campbell, that the investigation was insufficient, or that dismissal was outside the range of reasonable responses.

For wrongful dismissal, the tribunal made its own finding that the claimant had fundamentally breached her contract by accessing prisoner records on multiple occasions while knowing she was breaching the respondent's rules. It found that this released the respondent from the obligation to give notice or payment in lieu, so the wrongful dismissal claim was dismissed.