Mr S Miles v UK Research and Innovation — 2019

Mr S Miles brought claims of unfair dismissal, disability discrimination, and breach of contract, but this preliminary hearing was concerned only with disability and the claimant's application to amend. The tribunal recorded that Mr Miles had kyphoscoliosis and scoliosis, that the condition had been asymptomatic until October 2017, and that severe pain then led to absence from work from November 2017 until his dismissal on 17 April 2018. The respondent said he was dismissed for gross misconduct unconnected with any disability.

The tribunal considered a joint medico-legal report from Professor U.M. Chowdhary. Mr Miles challenged the report's factual basis and alleged that parts of it had been altered or falsified, but the tribunal applied Employment Judge Salter's earlier directions, under which any significant challenge required the expert's attendance. Because Professor Chowdhary was not called, the tribunal held that it was not proper to disregard the report and treated it as the medical evidence before it.

On that evidence, the tribunal accepted that Mr Miles had a physical impairment and that it caused a substantial adverse effect on normal day-to-day activities during the period from mid-October 2017 to mid-April 2018. It did not accept, however, that the impairment met the long-term limb of the s6 test. Professor Chowdhary concluded that the symptoms had lasted about six months by the date of dismissal and that, as matters stood in April 2018, there was no medical basis to predict that they would last for 12 months or more. The tribunal also noted that the March 2018 MRI had not identified a specific underlying pathology and that the later receipt of the MRI result did not change the position as at April 2018.

The tribunal therefore held that Mr Miles was not disabled within the meaning of s6 Equality Act 2010 at the material time, and his direct disability discrimination claim was dismissed. Because the application to amend was an application to add further disability discrimination allegations arising from the dismissal process, that application was also dismissed.