01 February 2023
An employment tribunal judge has been given a formal warning for consuming alcohol during a break in a hearing.
A Judicial Conduct Investigations Office spokesperson said Judge Pauline Hughes was part of a panel of three at a hearing in September 2021 when ‘the judge’s fellow panel members became concerned, due to a change in her behaviour, that she might be intoxicated’.
Judge Hughes, who has not sat since the incident, told her tribunal president in August 2022 she had little recollection of the incident but did not dispute it. She expressed remorse and gave assurances as to her future conduct.
