Tribunal clarifies approach to disability status in preliminary hearings
The Employment Appeal Tribunal has confirmed that a tribunal may decide whether a claimant was disabled during the relevant period as a preliminary issue, without first identifying every alleged act of discrimination.
Background
In the case of JP v Spelthorne Borough Council, the claimant, who was unrepresented, brought claims including disability discrimination. At a preliminary hearing in January 2023, held in private, the tribunal noted that her paperwork lacked clarity. The judge directed that a further preliminary hearing should take place in public to decide whether the claimant was disabled within the meaning of the Equality Act 2010 at the relevant times, to clarify the specific acts of discrimination alleged, and to make case management orders to prepare the matter for a final hearing.
When the case came before the tribunal in May 2023, the judge chose to deal with the disability question first. The relevant period was identified as running from December 2019, when the claimant clarified that the earliest alleged act of discrimination had taken place, through to January 2021, the date of her dismissal. Having reviewed the evidence, the tribunal accepted that the claimant's impairments had adverse effects on her day-to-day activities but concluded these were not likely to last for at least 12 months, nor likely to recur. The claimant was therefore not disabled for the purposes of the Equality Act, and her disability discrimination claim was dismissed at that stage.
On appeal, the claimant argued that this was the wrong approach. She said the tribunal should first have clarified which acts of discrimination she was relying on before deciding the disability issue. She also said that the period under consideration should have extended beyond her dismissal to cover her internal appeal process, which concluded in May 2021, meaning her health at that point should have been considered.
What the EAT decided
The EAT dismissed the appeal. On the first ground, it accepted that in some types of claim it is important to define the acts complained of before assessing prospects of success, but emphasised that this is not a fixed rule in every case. Where the issue is whether someone was disabled, the key question is whether their condition met the legal test at the time of the alleged discrimination. The tribunal had identified a clear timeframe and was entitled to decide the disability issue before going further.
On the second ground, the EAT held that the relevant period for assessing disability normally ends at the point of dismissal, unless there are clear allegations of discriminatory acts after that date. In this case, neither the pleadings nor the claimant's impact statement set out any such allegation. The fact that she pursued an internal appeal did not in itself extend the relevant period. The tribunal was therefore correct to consider her disability status only up to January 2021.
The EAT also stressed that tribunals should not be expected to pore over claim forms looking for possible arguments. The claimant had been given the opportunity to identify her allegations, but in this instance she had not done so. On that basis, the tribunal's decision was sound and the appeal failed.
Learning points for employers
This decision highlights that tribunals may deal with disability status as a preliminary issue, and that the relevant period usually runs up to the point of dismissal unless clear allegations extend it further. Employers facing disability discrimination claims can therefore expect early scrutiny of whether a claimant was disabled at the relevant time, which may resolve proceedings before the merits of the alleged acts are tested.