The claimant had suffered direct race discrimination, unlawful detriment and automatic unfair dismissal because she had made protected disclosures but the claims were dismissed by the ET. This appeal was allowed to proceed on the sole ground of whether the process followed by the respondent had been procedurally fair, with the claimant submitting it was unfair because the manager who made the decision to dismiss had not conducted the disciplinary hearing

Mathew Gullick KC, sitting as a Deputy High Court judge, dismissed the appeal as Budgen & Co v Thomas was not authority for the proposition that a dismissing officer must always have direct communication with an employee in order for a misconduct dismissal to be fair. The Employment Tribunal had also not erred in law by finding that any procedural unfairness in the initial decision to dismiss was sufficiently addressed by the internal appeal, which involved a meeting between the claimant and the decision-maker.