Mrs S Howard v ST & H Group Limited — 2020

This was a reserved judgment on a preliminary issue in a disability discrimination case. The tribunal was asked to decide whether Mrs Howard was a disabled person within the meaning of s.6 Equality Act 2010 at the material time. It found that she was not. The hearing was before Employment Judge Khalil sitting alone on 12 October 2020, and the listed hearing dates for the merits were vacated after this decision.

The tribunal accepted that the claimant experienced anxiety symptoms in October and November 2018, including stress, panic attacks and related issues. It also accepted that those symptoms had a substantial adverse effect at times, particularly around her daughter’s asthma attack and work-related stress. However, it found that the medical records at the time did not show that the impairment could well last for at least 12 months at the material time, and that later deterioration in December 2018 and March 2019 could not be relied on to answer that question.

The tribunal treated the GP letter dated 1 May 2019 and the disability impact statement with caution. It found the GP opinion was retrospective, lacked examination or consultation, did not identify the impairment with enough specificity, and did not explain why the long-term test was met. It also found the disability impact statement was internally inconsistent as to timing and did not clearly distinguish the claimant’s position in October/November 2018 from her later condition. Taking the evidence as a whole, the tribunal was not satisfied that the burden of proof had been discharged. It concluded that the claimant’s impairment at the material time was closer to being episodic or transient than long-term within the statutory definition.