Court of Appeal: Sir Geoffrey Vos MR, King and Dingemans LJJ, [2022] EWCA Civ 86, 4 February 2022 The claimant sought to challenge the exclusion from an infected blood compensation scheme of people who contracted hepatitis B (HBV). He had contracted HBV from unscreened blood in 1989 but HBV was excluded from the scheme because blood donors had been screened for HBV since 1972. The claimant sought to rely on Articles 8 and 14 and A1P1 ECHR and on s15 EqA (disability discrimination). His claim failed and the Court of Appeal rejected his appeal, relying on the Supreme Court’s decision in R (SC) v ..read more

Court of Appeal; Sir Keith Lindblom, Males and Elisabeth Laing LJJ, [2022] EWCA Civ 457, 5 April 2022 The Court of Appeal dismissed an appeal, based on the PSED, from the order of Kerr LJ refusing the claimant’s application for statutory and judicial review of experimental traffic orders (ETOs) creating Low Traffic Neighbourhoods which had been made by the respondent. The claimant, who was  severely physically disabled, argued that the effect of the orders was to make her life more difficult. The Court reviewed the “ample authority” on the PSED and drew attention to five points ..read more

Court of Appeal: Peter Jackson, Singh and Andrews LJJ, [2022] EWCA Civ 1, 11 January 2022 This decision concerned a challenge to the suspension of Disability Living Allowance (“DLA”) after an individual in receipt of the benefit has been hospitalised for 28 days. The challenge was brought under Article 14 read with A1P1 to the Convention by MOC, a 60 year old man with complex medical conditions and disabilities whose sister, MG, had been appointed to act as his deputy by the Court of Protection. Prior to his hospitalisation MOC, who had cognitive, mental capacity and mental health issues ..read more

EAT: Jason Coppel QC, UKEAT/0260/20/AT, 9 December 2021 This is an interesting case in which the EAT rejected an appeal from a finding that the claimant had not been discriminated against because of something arising in consequence of her disability (s15 EqA), or denied reasonable adjustments (s20(3) EqA) when an offer of a secondment in Montenegro was withdrawn on health grounds. The claimant had been the victim of a crime shortly before having been offered the secondment and had had to attend A&E twice thereafter with significant health issues as a result, but refused to make full disclo ..read more

Queen’s Bench Division (Planning Court): Kerr J, [2021] EWHC 3294 (Admin), 7 December 2021 This was an unsuccessful challenge under Articles 8 and 14 and s149 EqA (the PSED) to experimental traffic orders (ETOs) made by the respondent which took effect from 9 November 2020. The applicants complained that they are severely prejudiced by increased car journey times to and from their school. The challenge was brought under paragraph 35, Part VI, Schedule 9 to the Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984 rather than by way of judicial review, and so did not require permission, but Kerr J pointed out at §4 ..read more

Court of Appeal: Underhill VP, Moylan and Dingemans LJJ, [2021] EWCA Civ 1572, 2 November 2021 The claimant was a qualified solicitor with “various difficulties and mental health disabilities” who had been unemployed since 2011 and was accepted for the purposes of the litigation as being “vulnerable” as the term is used in the authorities relating to the inherent jurisdiction. He unsuccessfully sought financial orders against the respondents, his parents, requiring them to continue to provide him with significant financial support. His applications failed on the basis that the family cour ..read more

EAT: HHJ Tayler, EA-2020–000070-DA, EA-2021–000256-DA, [2022] IRLR 17, 7 October 2021 The Claimant brought claims of direct sex and disability discrimination after she received a formal warning in respect of sickness absence which she attributed to menopausal symptoms. She also complained that when she had told her team manager that she was suffering from hot flushes he had told her that he also got hot in the office; that her appeal against the written warning had been exclusively male and that she had been refused a female doctor for an occupational health assessment. A tribunal struck ..read more

Divisional Court: Singh LJ and Leiven J , [2021] EWHC 2536 (Admin), 182 BMLR 1, 23 September 2021 This was an unsuccessful challenge based on numerous human rights grounds of the fact that the Abortion Act 1967 s1(1)(d) permits abortion at a later stage of foetuses if there is “a substantial risk that if the child were born it would suffer from such physical or mental abnormalities as to be seriously handicapped”. The claimants (persons with and the mother of a person with Down’s Syndrome) argued that it was impermissible to distinguish between pregnancies where there was a substantial risk th ..read more

Northern Ireland Court of Appeal: Morgan LCJ, Treacy and McClosky LJJ, [2021] NICA 46, 3 August 2021 The applicant, who had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease, challenged a refusal to grant her enhanced rate Personal Independent Payments and assessment-free Universal Credit (“UC”) on the basis that she was terminally ill, in each case because she did not fall within the relevant legislative definitions of “suffering from a progressive disease where death in consequence of that disease can reasonably be expected within 6 months” (emphasis added). The prognosis in the applicant’s case was ..read more

QBD Planning Court: Pepperall J, [2021] EWHC 1650 (Admin) 17 June 2021 The claimant, a settled Romany Gypsy, unsuccessfully sought to challenge Department for Communities & Local Government planning policy issued in August 2015 which removed from the definition of “Gypsies and Travellers” those who had permanently ceased to travel by reason of health, education or old age. She also sought to challenge a decision of the inspector appointed by the Secretary of State to dismiss an appeal against the refusal of planning permission, which refusal flowed from the fact that neither Ms Smith nor a ..read more