Insight from an HR consultant providng a service in Milton Keynes and the UK, on what SOSR really means, when it applies, and how to avoid the mistakes that cost employers at tribunal.
The Employment Rights Act 1996 sets out four clear reasons for dismissal: conduct, capability, redundancy and statutory illegality.
There's a fifth category too. It's called "some other substantial reason" and it's the one that causes the most trouble.
Over time, SOSR has become the label employers reach for when they can't quite fit their reason into one of the other four boxes. The problem is that tribunals see straight through it when the groundwork hasn't been done.
Here's what you need to know before you go down that route.
What SOSR was designed for
SOSR exists because employment situations don't always fit neatly into the four standard categories. The law deliberately left room for genuine circumstances that fall outside those headings.
In practice, the kinds of situations where SOSR may be appropriate include:
🟢A restructure within your business that doesn't quite meet the legal definition of redundancy. Perhaps the role still exists in a different form, or the change is more about how work is organised than about reducing headcount.
🟢A breakdown in a relationship with a third party. For example, a client tells you they will no longer work with a particular member of your team. The trust has gone and there's no way to recover it.
🟢A fixed-term contract coming to an end where there's a legitimate reason for not offering a renewal.
🟢A conflict of interest that creates a real risk to your business. An employee whose partner holds a sensitive position at a direct competitor would be a typical example.
Each of these is specific. Each one is tied to a genuine business reason. That's the point.
The mistake most employers make
Here's where I see business owners trip up. They've had a problem with an employee. Maybe it was a performance issue that dragged on. Maybe there was a conduct concern that wasn't dealt with properly at the time.
Rather than going back and running the right process under the right heading, they try to wrap the whole thing up under SOSR instead.
Tribunals will look at the substance of what happened. If the real reason was poor performance, the fact that you wrote "SOSR" at the top of the dismissal letter won't change anything. A tribunal panel will see through the label and ask what was actually going on.
Putting it bluntly, if you didn't follow the correct procedure for a conduct or capability issue, relabelling it won't fix that.
What a tribunal will expect to see
If SOSR genuinely is the right category for your situation, you still need to meet the same standard of fairness as any other dismissal. There are no shortcuts here.
A tribunal will want to see four things.
🟢A clear and genuine business reason. You need to be able to explain why dismissal was justified. Not just that it felt like the right thing to do at the time, but that a reasonable employer in your position would have reached the same conclusion.
🟢A proper process. The employee needs to have been told the reason. They need to have been given a real opportunity to respond. And the decision needs to have been made by someone with the authority to make it.
🟢Evidence that alternatives were considered. If there was another option available, you'll be asked why you didn't take it. Could the employee have been moved to a different role? Could the situation have been managed differently?
🟢Documentation created at the time. Notes, letters, records of meetings. All of it written down as events unfolded. Pulling together a paper trail weeks or months later for a tribunal bundle is a red flag that judges pick up on immediately.
Where SOSR dismissals go wrong
Through my HR consultancy services in Milton Keynes and UK, I've seen the same patterns come up repeatedly when employers attempt an SOSR dismissal without proper guidance.
The most common problem is vagueness. The employer knows something isn't working, but they can't articulate the specific business reason clearly enough. "It just wasn't right" won't hold up.
Another frequent issue is rushing the process. Because the employer feels certain about the outcome, they skip steps. The employee doesn't get a proper chance to put their side across. No one considers whether there's an alternative to dismissal.
Then there's the documentation gap. The decision gets made verbally, the employee is told, and only afterwards does anyone think about writing it down. By then, memories have shifted and the record doesn't reflect what actually happened.
Finally, some employers don't consider whether the employee has a protected characteristic that could complicate things. If the employee raises a discrimination claim alongside an unfair dismissal claim, a poorly evidenced SOSR dismissal becomes much harder to defend.
Ask yourself these questions before you act
If you're thinking about dismissing someone and you're considering SOSR, pause and work through these:
🟢Can you write down the specific business reason in one or two sentences? If you can't, it probably isn't clear enough.
🟢Does the reason genuinely sit outside of conduct, capability, redundancy and statutory illegality? Or are you using SOSR because the correct process feels harder?
🟢Have you given the employee a chance to hear the reason and respond to it properly?
🟢 Is there a written record of each step you've taken so far?
🟢Have you thought about whether dismissal is actually the only option, or whether something else could resolve the situation?
If any of those give you pause, that's a sign you need to take a step back.
Why timing matters
One piece of advice I give to every client: get support before you start the process.
Once you've had a conversation with the employee, once you've put something in writing, the options narrow quickly. It's much easier to plan the right approach from the outset than to unpick something that's already gone wrong.
If you're unsure whether your reason qualifies as SOSR, or if there's a third-party relationship involved, or if the employee has a protected characteristic, those are all signals that you need to talk it through with someone who understands the legal framework before you act.
I work with business owners to plan dismissal processes properly. That includes helping you identify whether SOSR is genuinely the right route, building the evidence trail you'll need, and making sure the procedure is fair and defensible before any action is taken.
As an outsourced HR consultant providing a service to businesses in Milton Keynes and UK, I'd much rather have that conversation with you early than see a situation unravel at tribunal because steps were missed.
If you're considering a dismissal and you're not sure which category it falls into, get in touch. A short conversation now could save you a lot of time, stress and cost further down the line.
Get in touch and we can talk it through. You can book a discovery call and we'll look at where you are now and what needs to happen next. 📱 0781 3084152 or email 📧 daxa@hrresultsltd.co.uk Taking your HR from 'to do' to 'done'.
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