Employment
R (on the application of British Medical Association and another) v Secretary of State for Defence [2022] EWHC 1262 (Admin), [2022] All ER (D) 27 (Jun)
The Administrative Court dismissed the British Medical Association’s claim for judicial review of the defendant Secretary of State’s decision to direct the government not to commence or fully implement s 192 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 which, if implemented in full, would have enabled service personnel to bring Employment Tribunal (ET) claims for causes of action including unfair dismissal. The court held that: (i) the defendant had fulfilled his duty to consider the commencement of s 192 ‘from time to time’ which, as recognised in R v Home Secretary ex p Fire Brigades Union [1995] 2 All ER 244, had merely required him to decide at intervals when the question should next be considered; (ii) the defendant, as an Army officer in the 1990s, had not made a material factual error, namely, that the service complaints system (SC), and the possibility of an Order in Council which required the exhaustion of that system before
