Beware the consequences of ignoring capacity & unwittingly discriminating, says Richard Adkinson
A recent decision by HHJ Pelling QC reminds us that anti-discrimination legislation permeates all aspects of a public authority’s activities, particularly concerning litigation with those who lack capacity or are disabled (see Haworth (a bankrupt) (by the Official Solicitor her litigation friend) v Cartmel and The Commissioners for HM Revenue and Customs [2011] EWHC 36 (Ch)).
After a permanent injury to her spine, Miss Haworth suffered from severe mental illness and, as a “therapy”, looked after horses. In 2007, HMRC’s request to complete some tax returns went unanswered because Miss Haworth had a phobia of opening her post. HMRC carried out its own assessment and sent a letter threatening to distrain over £180,000 (returns filed after the bankruptcy order actually revealed no tax was due).
Her mother found the correspondence and told HMRC that the horses were kept as a therapeutic hobby, that she never opened post, could not manage her own affairs, and if she had read the distraint letter “she would have killed herself”. Some of HMRC’s officials recognised
