Injury To Feelings – Vento bands
This guidance was grouped into three main bands and took into account the guidelines complied for the Judicial Studies Board (now the Judicial College Guidelines) in the context of personal injury claims.
Back in 2002, the Court of Appeal in the case of Vento v The Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police provided guidance as to the appropriate level of compensation that should be awarded for injury to feelings. This guidance was grouped into three main bands and took into account the guidelines complied for the Judicial Studies Board (now the Judicial College Guidelines) in the context of personal injury claims. This was to ensure a degree of consistency in awards for non-pecuniary loss. As a result of the application of these guidelines, the Claimant’s injury to feelings award in this case fell from the original £65,000 plus £15,000 aggravated damages awarded by the ET to £18,000 and £5,000 aggravated damages.
The bands in 2002 were:
- Lower: £500 to £5,000
- Middle: £5,000 to £15,000
- Upper: £15,000 to £25,000
Awards below £500 or above £25,000 would be exceptional.
These bands have been updated over time. For claims issued on or after 6 April 2022, the bands will be:
- Lower: £990 to £9,900
- Middle: £9,900 to £29,600
- Upper: £29,600 to £49,300
As before, awards below £990 or above £49,300 would be exceptional.
The Presidential Guidance indicates that the RPI measure of inflation has shortcomings, and that any change in approach adopted in the Judicial College Guidelines (JCG) will be considered.
Compensation for injury to feelings is not meant to be punitive – it is meant to compensate an individual for the effect of the discrimination on the individual i.e. how hurt they are by the discriminatory act(s). But are they still in step with the JCG? By way of example, a “less severe” case of post-traumatic stress disorder is one described as “a virtually full recover will have been made within one to two years and only minor symptoms will persist over any longer period” – and the indicative band (with 10% uplift) is £3,300 to £6,850 within the JCG (15th Edition). This would place it on par with the lower band for injury to feelings purposes – and that band is intended to cover less serious cases, such as one-off acts or isolated occurrences. Should hurt feelings from a single act of less serious discrimination result in a similar level of compensation for up to two years of PTSD symptoms?
Related expertise
You may be interested in...
Legal Update
A pandemic legacy: flexibility
Opinion
NHS pay deal – is this the end of the dispute?
Opinion
Gender pay gap reporting – what are my obligations?
Opinion
Employment claims: the new rates and limits from 6 April 2023
Opinion
Plans to amend NHS pension rules to bolster NHS workforce approved by government
Opinion
Increase to 20 hour limit on supplementary employment for Health and Care Worker visa holders
Article
New report highlights risk of sidelining ED&I in school trusts
Opinion
Mopping up after a leak – how businesses can take steps to protect their confidential information
Online Event
Wellbeing and financial considerations – practical solutions for challenging times
Press Release
Browne Jacobson collaborates with The GLAA and University of Nottingham to tackle modern slavery and human trafficking
Legal Update
Teacher strikes – lessons learnt so far
Opinion
Can toilet facilities amount to sex discrimination?
Opinion
Consultation launched on minimum ambulance service levels during strike action
Opinion - Maternity services
Changes to redundancy protections for employees post-maternity leave
Opinion
BMA issues medical locum rate card for junior doctors
Legal Update
Employee who refused to wear a face mask fairly dismissed
Opinion
New toolkit to support safer recruitment in the care sector
On-Demand
Employment update webinar
Opinion
Term-time school worker entitled to national minimum wage for unworked basic hours
Opinion
Fire and re-hire – draft statutory code
Opinion
Menopause and the workplace
Opinion
Consultation on holiday entitlement – part-year and irregular workers
Opinion
Government introduces new “anti-striking laws” to be discussed in Parliament
Opinion
Twitter facing employment claims following mass redundancies
News that Twitter is being threatened with multiple claims by UK employees following mass redundancies provides a reminder of the risks that comes with an employer implementing large scale redundancy exercises.Legal Update
Industrial Action and Minimum Service Levels
Legal Update
Discrimination comes of age
Legal Update - Shared Insights
Shared Insights: Looking ahead to 2023 – what Health and Care employers need to know
Opinion
Rising Employment Tribunal backlog
Legal Update
Official statistics demonstrate a new wave of age discrimination claims
Opinion
Menopause and the NHS workforce addressing the female brain drain…
Opinion
4-day working week a success?
The Covid-19 pandemic drastically changed the world’s way of working, with increased flexibility being greatly desired by employees. Earlier on in the year, a number of organisations trialled the concept of a 4-day working week – which has clearly been a success for many.Legal Update
Coming of age
Official statistics show that 15,336 claims which included a complaint of age discrimination were received at the Employment Tribunals between March 2020 and March 2021.
Published Article
Starling Bank employment tribunal
The outcome of the Employment Tribunal claim brought by Gulnaz Raja against Starling Bank Limited (1) (Starling), and Matthew Newman (2) was reported last month.
Published Article
EU banks show slow progress on gender diversity
Opinion
Rising wages ahead
In the Autumn Statement delivered on 17 November, rises to the National Living Wage and National Minimum Wage rates were announced, to take effect from 1 April 2023.
Opinion
World Cup 2022 – how employers can avoid scoring an own goal!
The World Cup kicks off in Qatar on Sunday 20 November 2022, with the final taking place on Sunday 18 December 2022. Undoubtedly, this is a huge sporting event, and many employees will be keen to show their support for their favourite teams. However, due to the time difference, start times for the matches are between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. UK time, which could have an impact on employers if employees who wish to watch the matches are scheduled to work.
Legal Update
Settlement agreements – what are the limitations?
Settlement agreements are commonplace in an employment context and are ordinarily used to provide the parties to the agreement with certainty following the conclusion of an employment relationship.
Legal Update
The Starling Bank disability discrimination decision
Opinion
The vanishing dismissal
Where an employee appeals against their dismissal under a contractual appeal procedure and their appeal is successful, reinstatement to their previous role is automatic and does not require approval or agreement from the employee.
Opinion
Settlement agreements – what are the limitations post Bathgate?
Settlement agreements in an employment context are ordinarily used to provide both parties with certainty following the conclusion of an employment relationship – but what happens when there is alleged discrimination after entering into a settlement agreement?