Revd M D Pons v Ministry of Defence — 2025

The claimant was a Royal Navy Chaplain and serving member of the armed forces. He and his wife are adoptive parents of two disabled children with complex and serious health needs. The preliminary hearing considered whether the Tribunal had jurisdiction to hear the claimant's victimisation complaint, which related to disability matters, in light of the statutory exclusion for armed forces service.

The Tribunal held that Part 5 of the Equality Act 2010, so far as relating to age or disability, does not apply to service in the armed forces under paragraph 4(3) of Schedule 9. It found that the workplace victimisation provision relied on by the claimant fell within Part 5 and therefore within the exclusion.

The Tribunal rejected the claimant's argument that the provision should be read, under section 3 of the Human Rights Act 1998, as excluding victimisation claims from the armed forces derogation. It held that doing so would go against the grain of the legislation and Parliament's intended complete exclusion. The victimisation complaint was therefore struck out because the Tribunal had no jurisdiction to hear it.