Drugs researcher's tribunal is cancelled

An unfair dismissal bid against Edinburgh's Queen Margaret College by controversial drugs researcher Martin Plant has been withdrawn on the eve of a hearing to determine whether the case should go ahead. The industrial tribunal preliminary hearing is believed to have been cancelled because Dr Plant won a settlement, involving a confidentiality clause.

A college spokesman said: "All of the parties in this case now regard the matter as ended."

Dr Plant, former head of Edinburgh University's alcohol and research unit, left the university after a 20-year association when his contract expired last year.