Ms M McKay v ’s son) Lothian Health Board — 2025

At a preliminary hearing in chambers on 27 February 2025, Employment Judge A Jones considered the claimant’s application to amend her claim. The claimant had presented her claim on 21 October 2024, and the judgment records that her employment as an Office Manager had ended by resignation on 22 August 2024. The tribunal applied the Selkent approach and the overriding objective when deciding whether the proposed amendments should be permitted.

The tribunal allowed the amendment to add a section 103A ERA automatic unfair dismissal claim. It found that the factual narrative said to support the protected disclosure case was already contained in the ET1, that the new claim was not significantly out of time, and that it was unlikely to require much additional evidence. The tribunal held that the prejudice to the claimant in not being able to pursue automatic unfair dismissal outweighed the prejudice to the respondent.

The tribunal refused the application to add a section 47B ERA detriment claim. It said the application did not identify the specific detriments relied upon, that any detriment in June or July 2022 would be significantly out of time, and that clarifying the allegation would likely require the final hearing to be discharged. No substantive decision was made on the merits of the underlying whistleblowing or dismissal issues, and the final hearing remained listed for 22 to 25 April 2025.