THE Morecambe Bay hospital trust spent almost £1m in legal fees including failed employment tribunal battles, The Mail can reveal.

A Freedom of Information request shows that in the last seven years under-fire law firm Capsticks has represented UHMBT at two employment tribunals.

During that time the fees billed to UHMBT by Capsticks came to £895,490.10 of which £603,537.60 related to employment disputes.

Last week the Solicitors Regulation Authority confirmed it was investigating a complaint by consultant urologist Peter Duffy.

Mr Duffy, who was ruled to have been constructively and unfairly dismissed by an employment judge in 2018, was sent a letter by UHMBT's solicitor Sean Hick from Capsticks warning him he would be pursued for £100,000 in costs if he lost the tribunal.

UHMBT director David Wilkinson said: “In common with all NHS trusts across England, we get advice on a range of legal matters from specialist lawyers as we do not directly employ solicitors that cover the full range of legal services.

“Currently we take advice from Capsticks which specialises in health and social care on a range of legal matters, not just employment law.

“We always try to minimise legal costs and our contract for the provision of legal services is put out to tender on a regular basis in the same way other services are. We do not employ in-house health and social care lawyers.

“We place huge value on our employees and we would always much prefer to resolve any disputes internally, both out of concern for our employees’ welfare and to avoid spending public money on costly legal fees, However, we are a large organisation with nearly 7,000 employees and, unfortunately, sometimes this is not possible.”

Whistle-blowing charity Protect has been supporting Mr Duffy.

Francesca West, Protect Chief Executive, said, "We are in communication with the SRA seeking clarification on the rules surrounding professional conduct when a person is under oath during an employment tribunal.

"It is not the first time we have heard of heavy-handed 'court room corridor' tactics to lean on claimants and scare them into dropping their case or reduce or weaken their case. We would like to see the SRA fully investigate Mr Duffy's complaint into his treatment by Capsticks.

"Protect supported Mr Duffy throughout this employment tribunal and we can vouch for the stress Mr Duffy had to endure over the legal costs threat during the three week hearing."