The Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police

Case Summary

A detective constable with complex chronic PTSD was medically retired by West Yorkshire Police based on a selected medical practitioner's opinion that he was permanently unfit for ordinary police duties. The tribunal found this constituted unfavourable treatment because of something arising from his disability, but upheld the respondent's justification defence, finding that dismissal was a proportionate means of achieving the legitimate aims of protecting the claimant's health and maintaining an efficient police force.

The tribunal found that although the dismissal constituted unfavourable treatment arising from the claimant's disability, the respondent successfully demonstrated justification under the proportionality test. The dismissal was a proportionate means of achieving legitimate aims including protecting the claimant's health and maintaining an efficient police force, particularly given that retaining the claimant in a policing environment would have been detrimental to his recovery from work-induced PTSD, and the impact was mitigated by his ability to access his pension early.

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• •Discrimination under section 15 of the Equality Act 2010 (unfavourable treatment because of something arising in consequence of disability)
• •Whether dismissal due to medical unfitness from PTSD constitutes unlawful disability discrimination
• •Justification defence under the Akerman-Livingstone proportionality test
• •Whether retaining the claimant in police employment was a proportionate means of achieving legitimate aims

Case 6016186/2024 1 EMPLOYMENT TRIBUNALS Claimant: Jonathan Waring Respondent: The Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police AT A HEARING Heard at: Leeds On: 28 th , 29 th & 30 th January 2026 Before: Employment Judge Lancaster Representation Claimant: Mr P Smith, counsel Respondent: Mr D Penmam, counsel JUDGMENT The claim is dismissed WRITEN REASONS 1. The decision having been reserved, written reasons are now required, 2. The Claimant is a detective constable who was dismissed, that is required to retire and take ill health retirement, with one month’s pay in lieu of notice as at 15 th June 2024. He was then aged 45. 3. The claim is, in respect of that dismissal, for discrimination under section 15 of the Equality Act 2010: unfavourable treatment because of something arising in consequence of disability. 4. It is accepted that the Claimant is disabled. He suffers from complex chronic post- traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 5. For about four years from 2016 the claimant had worked in the indecent Images Unit, as he puts it “immersed in child abuse images and offenders”. 6. Compulsory ill-health-retirement is only possible under regulation 81 (1) of the Police Pensions Regulations 2015 where there is an opinion from the selected medical Case 6016186/2024 2 practitioner (SMP) that the officer is likely to be permanently unfit to perform the ordinary duties of a member of the police force. 7. In this case the SMP, Dr Gidlow, expressly stated that the Claimant was so medically unfit in respect of the condition of PTSD. 8. It is therefore necessarily the case that the subsequent decision to dismiss was because of something arising as a consequence of the Claiman…