This article applies to England and Wales.
Evidence in disability discrimination judgments
In brief: Disability discrimination is the one claim type where medical evidence dominates: in substantial judgments from England and Wales, 2023–25, occupational health is mentioned in 53%, fit notes in 23% and impact statements in 19%. Since 2017–19 medical reports have fallen from 19% to 7% while fit notes and impact statements rose. The contract of employment appears in only 32%.
Last updated: September 2026
By Yerty | Analysis of published Employment Tribunal decisions, 2017 to 2025. Part of the evidence by claim type series.
Disability discrimination judgments read differently from every other kind. Medical evidence is in most of them, employer paperwork is in fewer than in any other claim type, and in nine years the medical evidence they describe has shifted from commissioned reports to fit notes and the claimant's own impact statement.
This piece takes the disability discrimination column of Yerty's evidence by claim type analysis and reads it on its own: 319 judgments in 2017–19 and 375 in 2023–25, making it the fourth-largest claim type in the population and the only one whose evidence profile is not a variation on the population's.
Summary
- Medical evidence is the profile. Occupational health 53%, fit notes 23%, impact statements 19%, medical records 15%, medical reports 7%. In every other claim type occupational health sits at 7–17% and impact statements at 0–4%.
- The form of medical evidence changed. Medical reports fell from 19% to 7% of judgments. Fit notes rose from 15% to 23%, impact statements from 15% to 19%, medical records from 13% to 15%. Occupational health was flat at 53–56%.
- Employer documents are thin. The contract of employment appears in 32% (population 50%), written warnings in 10%, investigation reports in 6%.
- WhatsApp is lowest here bar redundancy. 12% against 16% in the population, up from 2%. Diaries fell from 12% to 3%, the largest fall of any claim type.
Evidence in disability discrimination judgments
Share of judgments that mention each type of evidence at least once. The final column is every judgment in the population, for comparison. 319 judgments in 2017–19 and 375 in 2023–25.
Evidence mentioned in disability discrimination judgments · share of judgments, ■ 2017–19 (n 319) → ■ 2023–25 (n 375) · ○ all cases 2023–25
Sorted by change. Rows under 3% in both periods are omitted; the full figures are in the table below. A mention is not reliance.
| Evidence | Disability discrimination 2017–19 | Disability discrimination 2023–25 | All cases 2023–25 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Witness evidence | |||
| Witness statement | 56% | 66% | 67% |
| Employer documents | |||
| Contract of employment | 27% | 32% | 50% |
| Written warning | 14% | 10% | 13% |
| Final written warning | 11% | 7% | 10% |
| Dismissal letter | 10% | 9% | 11% |
| Job description | 8% | 13% | 11% |
| Disciplinary policy | 7% | 7% | 11% |
| Investigation report | 7% | 6% | 10% |
| Resignation letter | 6% | 6% | 7% |
| Appeal letter | 5% | 4% | 6% |
| Employee handbook | 2% | 3% | 4% |
| Grievance letter | 4% | 4% | 4% |
| Personnel file | 2% | 2% | 2% |
| Pay and time paperwork | |||
| Payslips | 4% | 6% | 11% |
| Rota | 9% | 11% | 10% |
| P45 | 4% | 4% | 5% |
| Timesheets | 0% | 3% | 5% |
| Bank statements | 1% | 1% | 3% |
| Medical evidence | |||
| Occupational health | 56% | 53% | 17% |
| Fit note | 15% | 23% | 9% |
| Medical records | 13% | 15% | 4% |
| Impact statement | 15% | 19% | 4% |
| Medical report | 19% | 7% | 2% |
| Notes made at the time | |||
| Diary | 12% | 3% | 5% |
| Minutes of the meeting | 5% | 3% | 4% |
| Contemporaneous notes | 2% | 3% | 2% |
| Incident report | 2% | 1% | 2% |
| File note | 1% | 1% | 1% |
| Messages and images | |||
| 2% | 12% | 16% | |
| Text messages | 5% | 6% | 7% |
| Social media | 4% | 3% | 5% |
| Photographs | 7% | 4% | 5% |
| Screenshots | 0% | 2% | 3% |
| Microsoft Teams | 0% | 3% | 2% |
| Voicemail | 1% | 1% | 2% |
| Phone records | 1% | 0% | 1% |
n: Disability discrimination 319 / 375; all cases 2,029 / 1,738. A judgment is counted under every claim type among its claims.
The medical file, and how it changed
A disability claim under the Equality Act 2010 starts with whether the claimant is disabled within section 6, and much of the medical evidence in these judgments goes to that question and to what the employer knew. Occupational health is mentioned in 53% of judgments, which is three to seven times its rate in any other claim type.
The shift is in what kind of medical evidence. In 2017–19, 19% of disability judgments mentioned a medical report; in 2023–25, 7% do. Over the same period fit notes rose from 15% to 23%, impact statements from 15% to 19% and medical records from 13% to 15%. Occupational health did not move. The direction is away from evidence commissioned for the litigation and towards evidence that already existed (fit notes, GP and hospital records, the OH file) plus the claimant's own account of the effect of the impairment. The text cannot say whether that is cost, tribunals' readiness to decide disability status without an expert, or drafting; it can only say that it happened here and nowhere else. Outside disability claims, every medical row moved by two points or fewer.
Medical reports: share of judgments by claim type. The fall is in the disability line and nowhere else.
Each line is one claim type. Claim types overlap. The dashed line is the all-cases value in 2023–25.
Fit notes: share of judgments by claim type.
Each line is one claim type. Claim types overlap. The dashed line is the all-cases value in 2023–25.
Employer paperwork
The contract of employment appears in 32% of disability judgments against 50% of all judgments and 71–72% of money-claim judgments. Written warnings (10%), final written warnings (7%), investigation reports (6%) and disciplinary policies (7%) are all below the population rate. Job descriptions are the one employer document above it, at 13% against 11%, which fits a claim type where the question is often what the job actually required and whether it could have been adjusted.
Written warnings fell from 14% to 10% and final written warnings from 11% to 7%, the same fall as in every other claim type.
Messages, diaries and photographs
WhatsApp is mentioned in 12% of disability judgments, up from 2%. That is the lowest rate of any claim type except redundancy (9%), and well below the wages claims (23–25%). Microsoft Teams, at 3%, is slightly above the population's 2%.
The diary fell from 12% of disability judgments to 3%. That is the largest fall for any evidence type in any column, and it is worth stating what it is not: it is not the impact statement replacing it, since the impact statement is a different document with a different purpose. The contemporaneous account of what happened, which a claimant with a long-running workplace complaint used to keep in a diary, is now more often a message thread.
Method and limits
Population and matching are those of the hub analysis: single-claimant merits decisions with written reasons, England and Wales, one judgment per case, 20,000 to 60,000 characters. Each figure is the share of judgments containing the exact phrase at least once. A judgment is counted under a claim type if that claim type is among its claims, so a judgment can appear in several claim-type columns and the columns do not sum to the population. A mention is not reliance: a judgment that rejected a document or noted its absence counts the same as one that accepted it. No category totals are given.
Frequently asked questions
What evidence appears most often in disability discrimination judgments?
In substantial judgments from 2023–25: witness statements (66%), occupational health (53%), the contract of employment (32%), fit notes (23%), impact statements (19%), medical records (15%) and WhatsApp (12%). Figures are England and Wales, single-claimant, one judgment per case, and count judgments that mention the evidence at least once.
How often do disability cases involve medical reports?
Less than they did. A medical report is mentioned in 7% of substantial disability discrimination judgments from 2023–25, down from 19% in 2017–19. Over the same period fit notes rose from 15% to 23% and impact statements from 15% to 19%, so the medical evidence described has shifted rather than shrunk.
What is a disability impact statement?
A written account by the claimant of the impairment and its effect on day-to-day activities, usually ordered by the tribunal where disability is disputed. It is mentioned in 19% of substantial disability judgments from 2023–25, up from 15%, and in 0–4% of judgments in every other claim type.
Is occupational health evidence common?
Yes, and it is the single most common form of medical evidence. Occupational health is mentioned in 53% of substantial disability discrimination judgments in 2023–25, flat from 56% in 2017–19. In every other claim type the rate is between 7% and 17%.
Why is the contract of employment mentioned less in disability cases?
Because the claim does not usually turn on contractual terms. The contract of employment is mentioned in 32% of disability judgments against 50% of all judgments and over 70% of wages, working-time and breach of contract judgments, where the terms are the dispute.
Does a document being mentioned mean the tribunal relied on it?
No. The counts include judgments that rejected a document, gave it little weight or noted that it was missing. A judgment that records that no occupational health referral was made counts the same as one that quotes the OH report. The figures describe what judgments discuss, not what decided the case.
Analyse the data
Compare medical evidence across disability judgments: occupational health, fit notes, impact statements, by year and sector.
Intelligence Hub →Manage your evidence
Disability claims turn on the impairment, its effect and what the employer knew. Keep the medical paperwork and your impact notes together.
Case Hub →Sources
Analysis of published Employment Tribunal decisions, 2017 to 2025, drawn from the public register on GOV.UK under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Population as stated in the hub analysis; 319 judgments with a disability discrimination claim in 2017–19 and 375 in 2023–25.
Related reading: what evidence do I need for a disability discrimination claim, what evidence tribunal judgments describe, 2017 to 2025, and tribunal evidence is moving from paper to screen.
Other pieces in this series: unfair dismissal, wages and working time, race, sex and age discrimination, whistleblowing, redundancy.