Mr K Oboh v West London NHS Trust 2204777/22 — 2022

This was an open preliminary hearing to decide whether Mr Oboh was a disabled person within the meaning of section 6 Equality Act 2010 by reason of generalised anxiety disorder. The tribunal noted that the ET1 did not refer to disability and that the point first appeared in later particulars. It considered the claimant's impact statement, later witness statement, a GP letter, and three occupational health reports. The claimant said he had self-diagnosed the condition, managed it with coping strategies, and had episodes in 2018, 2020 and 2022, but there was no medical diagnosis from a clinician and little contemporaneous support for a continuing impairment over the relevant period.

The tribunal accepted that the claimant had taken steps to manage anxiety, including self-help, relaxation techniques and talking therapy, and it referred to Herry v Dudley and the passage in J v DLA Piper concerning stress, anxiety and reactions to adverse circumstances. It found the chronology imprecise and considered that, for much of the period, there was no evidence that he had the requisite substantial effect on normal day-to-day activities. The December 2020 supervision note recorded that he said he was in good health and had no issues impacting work or performance, and the occupational health reports did not support a finding of disability.

The tribunal concluded that the evidence was insufficient to establish a mental impairment with a substantial and long-term adverse effect. It also rejected reliance on paragraph 5 of schedule 1 to the Equality Act 2010 because coping measures had been used at different times and it was not possible to say that, but for those measures, the required effect would have been present. The tribunal therefore held that Mr Oboh was not disabled within the meaning of the Act.