| SPOTLIGHT |
A non-legal member of the Employment Tribunal has been issued with a formal warning for misconduct after his tweets of a political nature were unearthed during a hearing involving a teacher.
The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office (JCIO) said the tweets, made by Mr Purkins, “called into question his impartiality, integrity and propriety as a judicial office holder.”
Mr Purkis had been sitting on a politically sensitive case where the claimant - an anonymised Christian teacher - argued that her dismissal had been unlawful, discriminatory and due to her religious beliefs.
However, during the hearing the claimant’s representative unearthed the tweets, made by Mr Purkis, which called into question his impartiality.
According to the JCIO, Mr Purkis had responded to a tweet which said, “Only atheists should be allowed to run for office” with “Damn right, you won’t catch us killing in the name of our non-god”.
He also suggested that the collective noun for Conservatives should be a “tumour”.
The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office said: “As a result of the tweets coming to light and the possibility of bias, the tribunal panel recused itself after six days of an eight day hearing, at significant cost and inconvenience to the parties and the public purse.”
Mr Purkis had explained that rather than an attack on organised religion his tweet was intended as a light-hearted comment on the misuse of religion by politicians to fuel conflict.
According to the JCIO, he "fully accepted that his intention was unclear in the comment and open to misinterpretation and he offered his apologies for the expense and any potential disrepute that his actions caused to the Tribunal Service".
The JCIO added: “The Senior President of Tribunals and the Lord Chancellor agreed with advice from the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office and decided Mr Purkis’s actions amounted to judicial misconduct. In issuing Mr Purkis with a formal warning, they took into consideration his explanation and apology.”
Lottie Winson
