In Ministry of Defence v Wallis and Grocott the EAT upheld a tribunal's decision that it had jurisdiction to hear unfair dismissal and sex discrimination claims brought by the dependants of members of the armed forces employed at the NATO headquarters in Belgium and the Netherlands.

The fact that the jobs and the terms on which they were employed (equivalent to those that would have applied if they were working in England) were only available to dependants of MoD staff posted overseas meant that they fell within the "expatriate" category in Lawson v Serco. The tribunal had not erred by not focusing on the characteristics of the actual job: the necessary "special connection" did not have to be some inherent feature of the work.

The principle in Bleuse v MBT Transport Ltd (that, where English law gives effect to a directly effective EU right, the territorial scope of that law should be construed to give effect to the EU-derived right if possible) applied to the Sex Discrimination Act 1975, even though it contains provisions defining its territorial scope