Under Article 124 of the Employment Rights (Northern Ireland) Order 1996, an employee is entitled to request a written statement giving particulars of the reasons for their dismissal if they were in continuous employment for a period of a year or more. An employee is automatically entitled to written reasons for dismissal if they were dismissed whilst pregnant, or whilst they were absent from work during an ordinary or additional adoption leave period.

Section 46(1) of the Interpretation (Northern Ireland) Act 1954 defines the terms, ‘writing’ or ‘written’ as: “words…represented or reproduced by any mode of representing or reproducing words in a visible form.” On that basis, an email may be considered the same as a written letter.

It does not seem to be particularly important whether an employer issues reasons for dismissal in written form or by email. Nevertheless, it is important that an employer retains a clear paper trail of correspondence with the former employee. Furthermore, employers should ensure that an employee is able to give confirmation of receipt of the relevant correspondence, for example, if sent via email, appropriate read receipts should be requested.