cd_rcEAT1113
EAT PRACTICE and PROCEDURE: NATIONAL SECURITY
Three linked claims, between the same parties, involved issues of national security. At a case management hearing, a judge concluded that an order in respect of the first claim that evidence relating to national security issues should be heard in closed session would apply to the second and third claims insofar as they raised the same issues, but made no wider order in respect of such material which arose only in respect of the two later claims. It was argued on appeal first that at a subsequent CMD a different EJ could not lawfully depart from this order without there being a change of circumstance, which it was argued there was not: and second that upon their true construction the Rules did not permit a judge to look at material, publicity for which was said to endanger national security, in closed session in order to determine if it should be heard in closed session at the trial of the claim.
Both arguments (and therefore the appeal) were rejected: in particular, the Employment Judge at the first CMD had not expressed any final decision on the matter, since she expressly regarded any decision as premature at the time she was invited to make it.
Langstaff P J
[2013] UKEAT 0472 – 13 – 0811
Bailii
England and Wales
Employment
Updated: 11 November 2021; Ref: scu.517549