Ms Patricia Kirkland v Caroline Mason trading as Hawthorn Education Services

The EAT allowed Ms Kirkland’s appeal on mitigation and the preparation time order. The case is remitted to a different Employment Tribunal to reassess those amounts.

The Employment Appeal Tribunal allowed Ms Patricia Kirkland’s appeal against parts of the Manchester Employment Tribunal’s remedy judgment. The judgment is dated 9 July 2026.

The appeal concerned the compensatory award for unfair dismissal and the amount of a preparation time order. The EAT found the Tribunal had not applied the correct approach to mitigation and had not based the preparation time order on a number of hours at the statutory rate.