The Claimant won his claims of unfair dismissal and sexual orientation discrimination at the ET. The Respondent appealed against this decision and the Claimant was given extra time to file his answer after he applied for an extension. His answer also contained a cross-appeal, and he was told he would have to apply for an extension to have the cross-appeal considered since the extension only applied to the response, not the cross-appeal. The Registrar refused his application and he appealed.

The EAT allowed the appeal. The extension was rightly held by the Registrar not to apply to a cross-appeal but the Registrar had erred in dismissing a subsequent application for extension of time to lodge a cross-appeal by applying the strict approach to time for appealing to cross-appeals. The reactive nature of a cross-appeal explained by Langstaff P in Basildon & Thurrock NHS Foundation Trust v Weerasinghe UKEAT/0397/14 and policy considerations illustrate why the strict approach to extensions of time for appeals does not apply to cross-appeals.