DA-B v Secretary of State for Defence: [2025] UKUT 290 (AAC)
Upper Tribunal Administrative Appeals Chamber decision by Judge Wright on 20 August 2025.
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Judicial Summary
This decision is about the deciding the most appropriate descriptor in relation to the mental disorders found in Table 3 of Schedule 3 to the Armed Forces and Reserve Forces (Compensation Scheme) Order 2011.
It summarises the Court of Appeal’s decision in Christopher Pearson v Secretary of State for Defence [2024] EWCA Civ 150.
The First-Tier Tribunal’s (FTT’s) decision is set aside for inadequately reasoning out why the appellant did not more appropriately come within Item 1 in Table 3 instead of Item 2. The FTT’s narrative explanation of the appellant’s history provided no adequate evaluation of the comparative applications of Item 1 and Item 2 in relation to that evidence. Moreover, and as a necessary precursor to that comparative exercise, the FTT had failed to make any clear findings which identified the necessary base line about the level of work which was appropriate to the experience, qualifications and skills held by the appellant at the onset of his PTSD, so as to compare that with the nature and level of work which the appellant had been capable of undertaking since the onset of his PTSD.