Cases on provision of services

A man with Down’s Syndrome received social care from his local council, under Scottish legislation. The council had a policy on what disability-related expenditure it would deduct in assessing his ability to pay charges for his care. The Supreme Court held that the failure of the council to adopt a more generous approach on this … Read more

The two applicants were wheelchair users. They claimed to the Strasbourg court that their local voting facilities were not sufficiently accessible, so that there was discrimination contrary to the European Convention of Human Rights. Their claims for reasonable accommodation failed. For a 2015 referendum, the physical premises were accessible, and any problems with access or … Read more

The ECtHR in Strasbourg rejected a claim by a wheelchair user that failure to make two cultural buildings in his municipality accessible was a breach of Article 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The ECtHR said this was an exceptional case where his lack of access to public buildings affected his life sufficiently … Read more

The Supreme Court held that legislation limiting tax credit to the first two children in a household is not unlawful discrimination contrary to Article 14 of the European Convention of Human Rights. The legislation was justified. This Supreme Court decision is important in clarifying (at least for the UK courts) various points on justification, including … Read more

The County Court held that organisers of a music concert had breached the reasonable adjustment duty by not arranging BSL interpreters for deaf audience members for the whole concert, including support acts. Reynolds & others v Live in the UK Ltd (In Creditors Voluntary Liquidation), 2021, County Court. Case no E89YJ500. Summary and full judgment … Read more

The High Court held that the UK government had failed to make a reasonable adjustment by not providing British Sign Language (BSL) interpreters for two televised Coronavirus data briefings. However for ongoing Coronavirus briefings – given the use of detailed data slides – the court held that “in-screen” BSL interpretation was enough to satisfy the … Read more

This appeal concerned reasonable adjustments for those with mental illnesses detained under the Immigration Act. The Court of Appeal held that the Secretary of State had failed to make reasonable adjustments, such as arranging advocates to assist mentally ill detainees in making representations about decisions to detain them. The court said that as in employment … Read more

The High Court held (among other things) that the rate of Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) was not a PCP which placed certain categories of employees at a particular disadvantage, even if female and BAME employees were disproportionately represented in the lowest earning groups. A claim for indirect sex and race discrimination under EU law therefore … Read more

A bakery in Northern Ireland refused to supply a cake iced with the message “support gay marriage” because of the religious beliefs of its owners. The Supreme Court held this was not discrimination by association because the objection was to the message, not to any particular person or persons. Supreme Court, 2018, www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKSC/2018/49.html Facts A … Read more

The claimant had ME/CFS, and also dystonia which affected her speech. She referred a complaint against a county council to the Local Government Ombudsman and requested support because of her and her husband’s disabilities, including one or more face-to-face meetings rather than just using email. The Ombudsman lost the request, and turned down subsequent requests … Read more