Mr M Scanlon v Mirus Wales — 2022

This was a reserved preliminary hearing on whether the claimant was a disabled person within section 6 of the Equality Act 2010 at the relevant time for the alleged acts, 7 July 2020 to 27 January 2021. The respondent accepted that the claimant had a disability by reason of ADHD, but disputed that anxiety, depression and PTSD each met the statutory definition.

Employment Judge Howden-Evans accepted that the claimant had mental impairments of anxiety and depression since his mid-teens and that those conditions had, at different times before July 2020, caused substantial adverse effects on normal day-to-day activities. The judgment refers to difficulty attending school and university, difficulty going out during the daytime, a period of being signed unfit for work in May to July 2020, and repeated episodes of low mood, poor sleep, concentration problems and related symptoms requiring medical treatment. The tribunal also found that by July 2020 there was a real possibility that the substantial adverse effects of anxiety and depression would recur and that those effects were long term.

The tribunal did not accept that PTSD had then had a substantial adverse effect on the claimant's ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. It accepted that he had a PTSD diagnosis and may have had PTSD since his mid-teens, but held that the substantial impairments experienced up to July 2020 were attributable to ADHD, anxiety and/or depression rather than PTSD. The tribunal therefore found that the claimant was disabled at the relevant time by reason of ADHD, anxiety and depression, but not by reason of PTSD. No substantive discrimination liability or monetary remedy was determined in this judgment.