Supreme Court confirms that embassy is not entitled to state immunity where employee’s duties fell within the normal ancillary and supportive role of administrative staff (The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia (Cultural Bureau) v Costantine)

On 6 March 2025, the Supreme Court handed down its judgment in The Royal Embassy of Saudi Arabia (Cultural Bureau) v Costantine [2025] UKSC 9. In a unanimous judgment given by Lord Lloyd-Jones, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, holding that, considering the principles in Benkharbouche v Embassy of the Republic of Sudan [2017] UKSC 62, the Employment Tribunal judge was correct in the circumstances to find that the embassy was not entitled to rely on state immunity in claims bought against it by its employee for direct discrimination. The employee’s duties at no point went beyond the normal ancillary and supportive role of administrative staff and, therefore, their employment was not an exercise of a sovereign act. While the Court of Appeal erred in law by failing to give proper consideration to whether the embassy was entitled to state immunity, if the Court of Appeal had considered the issue, it would necessarily have concluded that the embassy was not entitled to immunity.

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