The Claimant is a Lance Corporal in the British Armed Forces. Following a Preliminary Hearing, the ET determined that it did not have jurisdiction to hear her claim for race discrimination as she had not made a service complaint about the “matter”, as required by section 121(1) of the Equality Act 2010 and refused her application to amend her claim to add claims for sex discrimination, harassment related to sex and victimisation, because she had not made a service complaint about those “matters” as required by section 121(1). The Claimant appealed.

The EAT dismissed the appeal, holding that the ET was correct to conclude that section 121 requires a complainant who subsequently brings an EQA claim to indicate in their service complaint that they are making allegations of discrimination or harassment based on one (or more) of the applicable protected characteristics under the EQA or (as the case may be) that they are making a complaint of victimisation because of an action that it can be seen is capable of amounting to a protected act.