Employment Judge M A Macleod heard a preliminary hearing by CVP on 11 January 2021 to decide whether Miss Reid had materially complied with an unless order dated 12 December 2019. The order required GP medical records for the relevant period, GP or specialist reports, details of the impact of the claimant's conditions, and information about how those conditions affected the main duties of her employment. The respondent applied under Rule 38(1) of the Employment Tribunals Rules of Procedure 2013 to have the proceedings dismissed if there had been material non-compliance.
The respondent said the claimant had not produced the full GP records and had not set out the main duties of her job or explained how each condition affected them. Ms Wheeler relied on Scottish Ambulance Service v Laing and Royal Bank of Scotland plc v Abraham, and submitted that partial compliance was not enough. The claimant said she had provided extracts from her medical records, a GP report and handwritten notes, and that her former solicitor had withdrawn before the order; she also said there had been difficulty obtaining records during the pandemic.
The tribunal accepted that the claimant's response to paragraph 5 of the order was incomplete and very general, and found that she knew by January 2020 that the full GP records had not been passed to the respondent. Even so, it held that she had produced substantial medical material, had "just" complied with paragraph 1, and had partially complied with paragraph 5. On that basis, the tribunal concluded that the shortcomings were not materially serious enough to justify dismissing the proceedings.
The respondent's application to dismiss was therefore refused and the claimant's claims were allowed to proceed. The tribunal did not decide the merits of the unfair dismissal, disability discrimination or pay claim, and noted that whether the claimant meets the definition of disability under the Equality Act 2010 would need to be determined at a later hearing. No monetary award was made.