Claimant v Community Homes of Intensive Care and Education Ltd

Outcome

Facts

The respondent received the ET1 claim form by 10 May 2024 and the response was due by 5 June 2024. The claim was passed to Martin Prescott, a director of quality who dealt with subject access requests, but he took no action as he did not consider it his responsibility. The respondent has an HR department but failed to implement systems to ensure responses were filed on time. The respondent did not realise its failure until months later when notified the case was listed for hearing, approximately 8 months after the deadline.

Decision

The tribunal rejected the respondent's response as being significantly out of time (approximately 8 months late) with no acceptable explanation. The respondent's failure was a serious breach of tribunal rules, described as administrative neglect rather than any systemic or excusable error. However, the tribunal permitted the respondent to participate in the remedy hearing including calling evidence to ensure the claimant does not receive an unjustifiable award.

Practical note

Legal authorities cited