In person For v Respondent — 2020

The hearing was listed to decide whether Mr A Richards was disabled within the meaning of s6 Equality Act 2010 by reason of injuries to his back and legs sustained during Army service and/or osteoarthritis in his hips, and from what date. Employment Judge Brown sat alone. The tribunal accepted that the relevant question was whether the conditions, taken together or separately, produced a physical impairment with a substantial and long-term adverse effect on normal day-to-day activities.

The tribunal accepted that Mr Richards had ongoing back and knee pain from 2007. It relied on the 2007 War Pension examination, which recorded intermittent knee pain, difficulty exercising for more than 10 minutes, a stiffened gait, discomfort from the back condition, limited extension, and difficulty with sitting, bending to the floor, and getting onto a couch. It also accepted his evidence that the symptoms recurred over many years, with GP records showing intermittent prescriptions for pain relief and later records of continuing pain.

The tribunal found those effects were more than minor or trivial because they caused pain and difficulty on stairs, sitting, bending, and getting into bed or onto a couch, and that the effects had recurred for at least 10 years before 2018. Applying the disability definition, including the approach to recurrence and long-term effect in Schedule 1 to the Equality Act 2010, the tribunal concluded that from about 2010 the effects were to be treated as continuing and that Mr Richards was a disabled person at the relevant times. No monetary remedy was determined in this judgment.