Disability-Related Discrimination - New Act Restores Position

The core provisions of the Equality Act 2010 came into force on 1 October. The Act largely consolidates existing discrimination law, which had previously been found in a number of different pieces of legislation.

One of the changes made by the Act is to make it easier for a claimant to establish a case of ‘disability-related discrimination’, which was made more difficult following the decision in London Borough of Lewisham v Malcolm. In that case, the House of Lords ruled that a disabled tenant who was evicted from his flat for breach of the terms of his tenancy agreement (he had sub-let the flat in contravention of the lease terms) had not suffered discrimination despite the fact that he suffered from schizophrenia. The Court ruled that the Council, which was unaware of his condition, would have treated any other tenant the same way.

The Act replaces the concept of disability-related discrimination with a new protection from discrimination arising from disability. This means that a person discriminates against a disabled person if they treat them unfavourably because of something arising from, or in consequence of, their disability. In circumstances similar to those in Malcolm, a landlord would have to show that the treatment of a disabled tenant was a ‘proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim’ in order to avoid being regarded as having discriminated against them. The Act does, however, provide a defence where the landlord can show that it did not know, and could not reasonably have been expected to know, that the tenant had a disability.