Keystone Law’s employment partner Clive Howard has successfully advised Mr M Daniels, the former Chief Risk Officer (CRO) at the UK arm of Pakistan’s largest bank, in his employment tribunal claim following his dismissal after raising a number of concerns about the bank.

Mr Daniels, who joined the bank in 2019, made 11 protected disclosures during his time as CRO at United National Bank, including that the bank was in breach of a Section 166 (under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2000) requirement in relation to its risk management framework and that it breached the Prudential Regulation Authority’s (PRA) Fundamental Rules 2 and 5. He also raised concerns about working conditions and under-resourcing in the risk team, which jeopardised the bank’s ability to complete necessary work on its risk framework and regulatory programmes.

United National Bank argued that the PRA rules should be treated as guidance, rather than legal rules. However, this was dismissed by the Tribunal.

Mr Daniels was dismissed in April 2021, but despite being employed for less than two years, the tribunal ruled that he was dismissed for whistleblowing and he suffered automatic detriment because of his protected disclosures. In its judgment, the tribunal concluded that “the claimant’s escalating protected disclosures were the true cause of the decision to dismiss him.”

Clive Howard worked alongside barrister Lydia Banerjee of Littleton Chambers on this claim.

The full judgment can be found here.

Clive Howard said:

“This is a significant judgment for whistleblowers in financial services. In an important clarification, the tribunal recognised that internal rules did amount to legal obligations, which is positive news for whistleblowers in the financial sector.”

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