What is a provision, criterion or practice (PCP)?

There is no definition in the EA 10 and the phrase is very wide. It could refer to any of the employer’s policies, procedures, contract terms or practices. It does not matter whether the PCP is directly applied to a claimant, as long as its existence puts the claimant at a disadvantage. For example, in Roberts v North West Ambulance Service [2012] UKEAT/0085/11, the ambulance service practiced hot-desking, i.e. expecting staff to work at any available desk. They did not impose this practice on Mr Roberts because he suffered from a mental health disability (social anxiety disorder) which made it hard for him to cope with a different desk each day. Even so, he was adversely affected because the requirement for everyone else to “hot desk” made it impossible for a desk to be reserved for him. As a result, the hot-desking was a PCP that the ambulance service had to be able to justify.

A PCP can be a policy already in place, or something the employer intends to introduce in the future.