Ms R Savage v Represented by: Mr J Lawson - Solicitor NHS — 2024

This was an open preliminary hearing on whether the claimant's Equality Act claim was out of time. The claim concerned a recruitment process for a Psychological Wellbeing Officer role. The parties agreed that the last complained-of event was the withdrawal of a conditional offer on 18 December 2023. The claimant did not begin ACAS Early Conciliation until 12 December 2024 and presented the claim on 10 January 2025, so the tribunal found the claim was plainly outside the three-month time limit and could proceed only if it was just and equitable to extend time under section 123(1)(b) EqA 2010.

The tribunal accepted that the claimant had disability-related grievances and that she had a potentially competent claim on its merits. It also accepted that she did not know she could bring a tribunal claim as a job applicant, that she acted promptly once a colleague suggested she might have a claim, and that there was no apparent degradation of the evidence from delay. However, the tribunal found that she had a degree of awareness of disability discrimination and reasonable adjustments at the time of the withdrawal, had discussed the matter with family, had done some online research in late December 2023 or January 2024, and then consciously chose not to investigate further because she feared pursuing a claim could harm future NHS employment prospects.

On the medical evidence, the tribunal found that the claimant was not shown to have been medically prevented from pursuing the claim in December 2023 or at least the first half of January 2024. It found that her more significant physical and mental health difficulties arose later, and that by late summer 2024 her symptoms had improved enough that she could have returned to the issue if she had wanted to do so. Balancing the British Coal v Keeble / DPP v Marshall factors and the parties' submissions, the tribunal concluded that it was not just and equitable to extend time. The result was that the claim remained out of time and was dismissed.