Mr L Chapman v Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust — 2024

Mr Chapman applied for interim relief after his dismissal by Leicestershire Partnership NHS Trust, with an effective date of termination of 23 May 2024 and an ET1 presented on 30 May 2024. The hearing was by video link, there was no oral evidence, and Employment Judge Adkinson sitting alone set out the statutory test under Employment Rights Act 1996 ss.128-132 and s.129, treating the question as whether it was likely that the full tribunal would find the dismissal was for making a protected disclosure.

The tribunal accepted that Mr Chapman had made allegations to his employer, but was not persuaded that the pleaded disclosures were likely to amount to protected disclosures. It held that the December 2022 email about audits and DPA/GDPR concerns read as concerns rather than as factual information, did not appear to set out a criminal-law breach, and did not make it likely that the public interest test would be satisfied. It also considered the July 2022 document and concluded that it read as allegations of wrongdoing rather than as the disclosure of information, and it found that the other pleaded disclosures were too unspecified in date, content, and statutory basis to support a likely protected-disclosure case.

The tribunal then dealt briefly with causation on the assumption that protected disclosures had been shown. It recorded that the NHS Trust had carried out two investigations into Mr Chapman’s conduct, that the reports appeared thorough, detailed and fair, and that the disciplinary outcome letter was thorough, considered, detailed and well-reasoned. It saw nothing to suggest an ulterior motive or that the alleged disclosures were the sole or principal reason for dismissal, and it also noted that the documentation showed the Trust had investigated Mr Chapman’s allegation about another employee, CB. The application for interim relief was therefore dismissed.

The tribunal stressed that its observations on the underlying dismissal dispute were made only for the interim relief application and would not bind the final hearing.