[2024] UKUT 311 (AAC)

Error in making a finding not supported by the evidence as to the reason for Ms H stopping driving immediately after passing the driving test

The First-tier Tribunal erred in making a finding not supported by the evidence.

The First-tier Tribunal found—

“we understood the reason for stopping driving immediately after passing the test was because the Appellant believed she had achieved what she had set out to do 5 years previously” (paragraph 88).

This “understanding” was not supported by the evidence.

Asked why she had stopped driving after passing her driving test, Ms H’s oral evidence in response was—

“overwhelming? Just don’t want to. Don’t want to be in that position. Don’t want to feel unsafe. Don’t want to be on my own. I don’t want responsibility. I don’t want any of it” (UT bundle, page 133, 11^th paragraph).

The doctor on the panel summarised that response as—

“Right. So you don’t want the responsibility. Thank you. The next question is…” (page 133, 12^th paragraph).

That did not in fact summarise what Ms H had just said; she had given a number of other reasons too, as the citation at paragraph 65 above shows.

But in any event, Ms H had not said that she had stopped driving “because [she] believed she had achieved what she had set out to do 5 years previously”.

Ms H’s evidence cited at paragraph 65 above was evidence of worries that were relevant to mental health issues. It was also evidence that the worries had caused her not to perform the day-to-day function of driving. The First-tier Tribunal’s finding that she had stopped driving for a reason other than those worries overlooked Ms H’s evidence of her worries, and led the First-tier Tribunal down a route that took no account of them.