When an NMC Referral is Triggered not by Risk, but by Race. Landmark Legal Victory by E4BN

Employment Tribunal Rules

NMC Referrals Can Be Victimisation Under Equality Law

This week on the 9th of June 2025, a UK employment tribunal handed down a ruling with national significance not just for nurses, but for every frontline worker who has ever felt alone after daring to speak up against injustice.

For the first time (to our knowledge), a tribunal confirmed that a referral to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), the body entrusted with protecting public safety, can itself be a vehicle of racial retaliation. When wielded to punish rather than protect, such a referral may constitute unlawful victimisation under the Equality Act 2010.

This ruling is more than legal clarification; it is a beam of hope breaking through a wall of silence.

At the heart of this groundbreaking case is a Black mental health nurse, a dedicated member of Equality 4 Black Nurses (E4BN), working at a locked psychiatric facility in Yorkshire.

On the night of 21st February 2023, he came to work as he always had with compassion, professionalism, and duty. But that night, instead of support, he faced horror. A towering 6 foot white patient erupted into a violent, racist tirade calling him a "Black monkey," spitting in his face, and tearing his prescription glasses off his face. This nurse has a visual disability and he relies on those glasses to see. In that moment, the 5 foot nurse was imbalanced, frightened for his life, disabled, and dehumanised all while providing care.

But what followed was even more harrowing - the nurse became the accused. The organisation rewrote the truth, invoking the familiar, dangerous trope: the aggressive Black man.

The CCTV and the Turning of the Tide

The employer senior management team extracted a12-second CCTV clip of the whole event which did not include the assault of the nurse by the patient.

The CCTV clip did not show any contact. Despite this - the nurse was suspended. He was dismissed. He was referred to the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). He was referred to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS).

And the attack against the nurse? ........Forgotten

The racism he experienced? .......Erased from all paperwork

The trauma he was subjected to? .......Unacknowledged

Our member reported the incident to West Yorkshire Police. who were aware of this patient's documented history of racist behaviour.

Even colleagues, some senior clinicians, gave statements confirming he was the victim. Their voices, too, were silenced. Still, the employer filed no safeguarding report for him. Still, the NMC referral excluded every mention of race, trauma, and vulnerability. He was not protected. He was punished.

This institutional erasure - this deliberate blindness is what the NMC’s own Culture Review calls “defensive denial.”

The Employer’s Legal Defence:

“We’re Above the Law”

The referral of the nurse to the NMC did not happen in isolation. It came after a deeply troubling series of events: he was spat at, had his glasses pulled off, and was racially abused by a patient. Despite being the victim, the nurse was dismissed from his job. When he challenged that injustice by filing a race discrimination claim, the employer didn’t fight him through the legal process they chose to escalate it quietly by reporting him to the NMC.

But this wasn’t done straight away. The NMC referral came eight months after his dismissal, and just one day after the police confirmed there was no case to answer. By that point, Equality 4 Black Nurses (E4BN) had begun supporting the nurse, and his tribunal claim for race discrimination was well underway. The employer had received notice of it and just as pressure started to build, the NMC referral appeared.

That timing is not a coincidence. It looks like retaliation.

Still, the employer argued that their referral to the NMC fitness to practice was a protected routine, legitimate part of the legal process, and therefore shielded from challenge under “judicial proceedings immunity.” They relied on the legal case of White v South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Trust [2019] to say they were simply following procedure.

But the law is very clear: if you report someone to the NMC to punish them for filing a legal complaint, that’s not protected - it’s illegal.

Even if the referral is dressed up to look like it’s about patient safety, if the real reason is to get back at someone for standing up to discrimination, it counts as victimisation under the Equality Act 2010. The Supreme Court made that clear in P v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2017]: no one is above the law when it comes to victimisation not even those involved in formal processes.

So when a referral is made months later, after legal proceedings have started, with no new evidence, and just after the police have closed their file, it raises a serious red flag.

It no longer looks like a safeguarding issue. It looks like a second punishment for daring to speak up.

The respondent’s barrister told the tribunal:

“The referral is part of a quasi-judicial process and is absolutely protected.

The tribunal has no jurisdiction to question it.”

He attempted to distinguish this case from P v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2017] UKSC 65, suggesting that P only applied where the regulatory body itself was being challenged not the employer making the referral.

Essentially, they said: Even if we punished him for reporting racism, the law can’t touch us.

Our Response: Racism Cannot Be Immune

We challenged them head-on. We argued:

• That the Equality Act overrides any claim to immunity.

• That retaliation disguised as regulation is still retaliation.

• That no process no matter how formal can be used as a weapon against justice.

  
  

We relied on:

• Section 27 of the Equality Act 2010

• Articles 11 and 24 of the EU Equal Treatment Directive (victimisation and effective remedy)

• P v Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis [2017] UKSC 65

We made it clear - when a referral is triggered not by risk, but by race, it must be open to legal scrutiny.

The tribunal held in Leeds and presided over by Employment Judge Miller rejected the respondent’s defence and ruled firmly in our favour on this critical point.

“We do have jurisdiction to hear that complaint.”

Judge Miller continued:

“Workers in the UK are entitled - or were at the time - to an effective remedy... such that the principles of European law override judicial proceedings immunity.”

He explicitly confirmed that the Equality Act's victimisation protections do apply, even where a referral is made to a quasi-judicial body:

“Although [P] was a claim directly against the police misconduct panel, that doesn’t change the reasoning.”

In short - formal processes do not excuse retaliation.

The Personal Becomes Political: Neomi Bennett

Our founder, Neomi Bennett BEM RGN, is not legally trained. She is not a lawyer. What she brings is something no textbook can teach - lived experience shaped by adversity, guided by faith, and sharpened by the brutal realities of racism.

She was racially profiled by the Metropolitan Police. Wrongly arrested. Convicted in a system that chose prejudice over truth. And she fought back alone, afraid, and unqualified until justice finally recognised her. Her wrong conviction was overturned.

That battle didn’t just leave scars. It gave her discernment. It taught her how racism hides in paperwork, policy, and procedure and how silence is often the system’s greatest shield.

Neomi’s courage has come at a cost. While representing another Black nurse, she herself was referred to the NMC by the very regulator she dared to challenge for using the word “racism.” Her only “offence” was naming what others wished to erase. The referral made national news and exposed the uncomfortable truth: speaking out about racism can still make you the target. [Read more here]

Today, Neomi stands at the forefront of this fight not because she holds legal power, but because she holds moral clarity. Behind her is a quiet army: members of Equality 4 Black Nurses and Equality 4 Black Doctors,(E4BN/E4BD) her close friends, family, and seasoned legal professionals - some too cautious to step forward who offer her the insights, language, and tools to continue speaking truth to power.

They underestimated her. They won’t make that mistake again.

What Happens Next

The case now proceeds to a full hearing and a written decision of the outcome that will be published on the website in due course.

But this jurisdictional ruling is historic.

It shows:

• That retaliation can no longer hide behind formality.

• That Black nurses are not invisible.

• That the era of silence is ending.

Stand With Us

This member stood alone that night.

But he does not stand alone now.

We ask you:

📣 Share this story.

📣 Demand change.

Regulation must never be used to destroy those who speak up.The walls may be high but we are many. And we are rising.