An employment tribunal has questioned whether “anything is being done” to assist disabled applicants enrolled in a “blind” reserve list within the Home Office’s recruitment system.
The tribunal noted that a disabled employee under the Equality Act 2010 “at the very least […] ought to be given support in a potentially rather opaque recruitment process”.
The remarks were included in employment judge Adkin’s written reasons for dismissing a disability discrimination claim brought by civil servant Deborah Pennington against the Home Office.
Pennington, who has dyslexia, alleged direct disability discrimination during the period from October 2022 to September 2023 after she was placed on a reserve list following an application to an SEO grade vacancy in the department's interventions and sanctions directorate.
The tribunal heard that since achieving a promotion to substantive HEO grade in 2003, Pennington had been acting above her grade within the Home Office but had not found an SEO role, leaving her feeling that she was being blocked from progressing in her career.
After submitting her application in September 2022, Pennington received an email from the Home Office recruitment team telling her that she had met the required standard for the position but it was not possible to offer her a job “immediately”.
She was placed on a reserve list until October 2023 but was not contacted about alternative appointments during that period and concluded from the “total absence of any action or communication” that she had been blacklisted.
In January 2015, the Home Office had considered medically retiring Pennington because of her dyslexia, something she only learnt about two months later in an occupational-health appointment.
“That was plainly an unpleasant surprise for [Pennington], which has left her with a residual unease and concern about the attitude of the [Home Office] to her dyslexia,” the tribunal wrote.
Not a 'level playing field'
David Barnes, manager of the recruitment policy and compliance team within the Home Office Resourcing Centre, told the tribunal that the HORC system is “blind” to disabilities and doesn’t identify individuals on the reserve lists to prevent unconscious bias.
Pennington raised the concern that HORC’s "disability blind" policy does not reflect a “level playing field” for disabled people.
The tribunal added: “This document appears to be silent on [the Home Office’s] duties to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people and its public sector equality duties. To the extent to which disabled people may need additional support, it is unclear to us how that is achieved through the HORC process.”
The tribunal dismissed Pennington’s claim after concluding that the HORC system operated in a “non-discriminatory way” and couldn’t find any roles that should have been offered to her during the time she was on the reserve list. However, it also identified “some unsatisfactory aspects about the way that the HORC system works”.
It said: “Though the blind reserve list system stops unconscious bias, it raises a question mark about whether anything is being done to satisfy a positive duty to assist disabled applicants.
“[Pennington] in her claim form complains about absence of communication with recruiting managers. It strikes the tribunal that good management at the very least would suggest that the claimant ought to be given support in a potentially rather opaque recruitment process, which with her disability she might find more difficult to navigate than others.”
The Home Office has been approached for comment.