Miss Z Stevenson v Represented by: Mr J Meechan - Solicitor The Scottish Police Authority — 2020

This hearing was a preliminary application in case numbers 4106994/2019 and 4114955/2019. The claimant relied on an alleged protected disclosure said to have been made on 13 June 2008 to Chief Inspector Lee Wilson, and on an earlier tribunal claim presented on 2 October 2009 as the protected act for victimisation. The background included the original 2009 claim against the respondent's predecessor, which had been withdrawn and then dismissed under rule 52 on 13 November 2013.

The tribunal refused the respondent's application to strike out the section 47B ERA claims under rule 37(1)(e) on the basis that a fair hearing was no longer possible. It accepted that the disclosure was said to be a long time ago, but noted that the claimant would give evidence, that documentary material from the relevant period had been produced, and that there was no suggestion that the person to whom the disclosure was allegedly made would be unable to give evidence. The alleged detriments themselves were more recent, involving decisions in late 2018 and 2019 not to invite the claimant to interview or to offer employment, and the tribunal considered that the prejudice caused by delay was limited.

The tribunal also refused the res judicata application. It held that the original claim had been withdrawn before any hearing on the merits and that there had been no determination that the claimant had, or had not, made a protected disclosure. It further held that the present claims concerned different alleged detriments, said to have occurred significantly later and involving different decision-makers, so they were not the same cause of action. The claims therefore remained to be determined at a substantive hearing.