Chairman and Governors of Amwell View School v Dogherty
| Jurisdiction | UK Non-devolved |
| Judgment Date | 15 September 2006 |
| Neutral Citation | UKEAT/0243/06 DA |
| Date | 15 September 2006 |
| Court | Employment Appeal Tribunal |
EMPLOYMENT APPEAL TRIBUNAL
Before Mr Recorder Luba, QC, Mr G. Lewis and Ms P. Tatlow
Unauthorised recordings made by a claimant of the private deliberations of her employer's disciplinary hearing panel should not be admitted as evidence in support of her unfair dismissal claim at an employment tribunal on the ground of public policy.
The Employment Appeal Tribunal so held when allowing an appeal by the chairman and governors of Amwell View School from an order of an employment tribunal sitting at Bury St Edmunds permitting the claimant, Mrs C. Dogherty to adduce evidence from the recordings.
Ms Natasha Sethi for the school; Mr J. Thorogood, lay representative, for the claimant.
MR RECORDER LUBA, giving the judgment of the tribunal, said that the claimant, a teaching assistant, was dismissed for misconduct at the culmination of an investigation into her conduct by the employer and following the operation of a disciplinary procedure.
The claimant had recorded the three hearings without the knowledge of those present. The recording of the final hearing included not only the open hearing but also the periods when the panel had deliberated in private.
The grounds of appeal asserted, inter alia, that to allow into evidence the private deliberations of panel members clandestinely recorded without the knowledge of the panel members would amount to an unjustified infringement of the right to privacy enjoyed by governors on the panel, and that the public interest required that the private deliberations of those involved as members of disciplinary and appeals remained private.
It was asserted that the public interest would not be served if unauthorised recordings of those deliberations came into the public domain.
The tribunal had accepted that the material in the recordings was probative. The central issue on the appeal was whether there was a basis on which relevant evidence could and should have been excluded by the tribunal in its determination of the unfair dismissal claim.
The appeal tribunal rejected arguments based on the fair trial requirements of section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 and the fact that the recordings were made clandestinely.
Ms Sethi submitted that it would be contrary to the public interest if such evidence were to be admitted. She submitted that it fell into the broad class of judicial immunity or judicial privilege.
IIt was always...
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