A former government scientist at the Porton Down defence technology campus in Wiltshire has won his employment tribunal claim for constructive dismissal after he faced ‘clear hostile animus’ for his perceived gender-critical views.
Peter Wilkins, 43, resigned from the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) near Salisbury in November 2022, after what the tribunal found to be an intimidating atmosphere that resulted in harassment and discrimination. He had worked for DSTL since 2008.
In 2021, when neuroscientist Professor Sophie Scott was awarded the Michael Faraday Prize by the Royal Society, an employee wrote on a DSTL blog that it was “pretty disheartening” given she was known for her “non-inclusive views on trans and non-binary people”.
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Wilkins complained to the internal blog’s moderators saying it was “deeply unfair” to Prof Scott. He said it implied that anyone with gender-critical beliefs should not receive public recognition for their work.
In the ensuing months, a number of posts disparaged people with such beliefs.
One DSTL employee wrote that openly stating these views was “abusive” and another described gender criticism as “bigotry”. A third said people with these views led “sad pathetic little lives”.
When Wilkins liked a LinkedIn post by the gender-critical campaign group Sex Matters, a colleague suggested the matter should be referred to security and HR.
They took no action, but Wilkins described it as astonishing that he was flagged “in the same way as if I was expressing support for the provisional IRA or al-Qaeda”.
Wilkins, who is a Christian, repeatedly asked management to intervene, explaining to HR that his philosophical beliefs were protected following the 2022 ruling in Maya Forstater vs Center for Global Development. He believed such posts against gender criticism would not be tolerated if they had focused on other protected beliefs or religions.
The Southampton employment tribunal found that management viewed Prism, an employee network for sexual orientation and gender identity as a “powerful force” within DSTL and was loath to go against or upset it.
It heard that Paul Kealey, a divisional head at DSTL, told Wilkins that while staff were permitted to hold gender-critical beliefs, it was “not okay to express such views in the workplace”.
Wilkins resigned due to a hostile, intimidating and degrading environment. The tribunal decided he was constructively dismissed having found a “clear hostile animus” towards gender-critical beliefs at DSTL.
‘Very one-sided’
Following the tribunal decision, Wilkins said: “It’s a scientific organisation, so it shouldn’t be unacceptable to use the phrase biological sex.
“I was never looking for DSTL to endorse my beliefs, or for anything to be said against people on the other side of the debate. But it just felt very one-sided.
He added: “It was pretty hurtful really, having spent 15 years working for DSTL on some things which were high-security, to be told that we think you’re a security risk because you have these fairly normal, run-of-the-mill, factual beliefs about sex and genders.”
Dr Bryn Harris, chief legal counsel at the Free Speech Union, which supported Wilkins, told The Times: “They’re meant to be fighting world wars, not culture wars.”
He added: “Peter was exquisitely patient in pointing out, again and again, that DSTL cannot demean employees for holding the ‘wrong’ view about sex and gender. DSTL’s response that it is ‘not okay’ to express gender-critical views in the workplace was a flagrantly unlawful suppression of our member’s freedom of speech. We expect DSTL now to put its house in order, and to respond accordingly to the tribunal’s finding of serious breach of the Civil Service Code by senior employees.”
A future remedy hearing will decide on Wilkins’ compensation. However, the judgment decided that his treatment did not amount to victimisation.
A DSTL spokeswoman said: “We will review the judgment and, following that, we will look to take any appropriate actions. We cannot make any further comment on individual cases.”
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