In Browne v The Commissioner of Police of the Metropolis, B has asthma and worked in the Met’s open plan Command Control Centre. B maintained that the environment triggered her asthma because it was cold, the temperature fluctuated, and she was exposed to viral or other infections of those working around her. Environmental testing of the building undertaken in the context of the health issues B raised did not reveal any problems. The EAT upheld an ET’s decision that B had failed to establish that working in an open plan office in which the ambient temperature could not be controlled by an individual employee, placed her at a substantial disadvantage as a disabled person. B undertook activities incompatible with her own description of her ill health, the environmental evidence afforded no support for B’s concerns about the open plan office floors and B’s uninterrupted attendance at work over an eight-month period spoke for itself.

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