Ms S Okeze v Represented by:15 Ms Campbell, Solicitor Cygnet Health Care Limited — 2021

This was a preliminary hearing in which the tribunal decided only the issue of disability under section 6 of the Equality Act 2010. The claimant said she had been diagnosed with anxiety and depression in or about 2016 and had been prescribed antidepressants, including Fluoxetine, since then. She also adopted a disability impact statement saying that she had difficulty sleeping, low mood, panic attacks, and problems with everyday functioning.

The tribunal heard oral evidence from the claimant and considered a Community Mental Health Nurse report from November and December 2018, together with medical records in the bundle. It found that the claimant was upset and angry about family conflict and other adverse life circumstances, but that many of the difficulties she described were not supported by medical evidence. The tribunal noted that the nurse’s report recorded no evidence of thought disorder or perceptual disturbance, no impairment in concentration, motivation or interest levels, and anxiety that was not outside normal parameters.

Applying section 6 of the Equality Act 2010, Schedule 1, the statutory guidance, and the approach summarised in Goodwin v Patent Office and J v DLA Piper, the tribunal held that the claimant had not shown that her impairment had a substantial and long-term adverse effect on her ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. It placed weight on the absence of supporting medical evidence and on the fact that the only clinical report tended to contradict the claimant’s account of the extent of her functional limitations.

The tribunal therefore found that the claimant was not disabled in terms of the Equality Act at the relevant time, and the disability discrimination claims were dismissed. No remedy was awarded in this judgment.