Does UNISON think that comparators should be used in legal cases trying to establish disability-related discrimination?
No, and this has been highlighted by the recent Malcolm case. In this context, ‘comparator’ is the term for a person with whom the actions of the defendant are compared. The case involved Mr Malcolm, a man with schizophrenia and thus covered by the DDA who sublet his flat in breach of his tenancy agreement and had eviction proceedings brought against him. Mr Malcolm argued that, because of the effect of his impairment, he did not understand that he could not sublet his flat or the potential consequences of doing so. Until this case, the approach would have been that the comparator was someone who did not have a disability and did not sublet, but the House of Lords ruled that the comparator should be someone who had sublet their flat but who did not have a disability. Since Lewisham council would have sought possession against anyone who had sublet their flat, the law lords found that the council had not treated Mr Malcolm less favourably for a disability-related reason. As a result of
