Recording reasonable adjustments: what a tribunal would look for

Why the record is the defence

Adjustment disputes are usually decided long after the events, on the strength of what was written down at the time. Memories differ, people leave, and a tribunal gives contemporaneous documents far more weight than recollections assembled for the hearing. An employer that engaged carefully with a request but recorded nothing has, in practice, very little to show.

This cuts both ways. A record made at the time that shows a genuine process, even one that ended in a refusal, is strong evidence of good faith. Record-keeping is not bureaucracy layered on top of the duty; it is how you prove the duty was met.

What a tribunal would want to see

• The request itself, in the employee's own words, with the date it was made.
• Evidence the employer engaged promptly: meetings held, advice sought, options considered, and the dates of each.
• The decision, who made it, and the reasoning, especially for refusals. A refusal with no recorded reason is close to indefensible.
• Alternatives offered when the requested adjustment was not agreed, and the employee's response to them.
• Proof of implementation and the dates adjustments actually took effect.
• Reviews: evidence the employer checked the adjustment was working rather than agreeing it and walking away.

[TODO: verify] This section will carry analysis of real tribunal outcomes involving record-keeping once our tribunal dataset is complete, including how often absent or altered records featured in successful claims.

The qualities that make a record hold up

• Contemporaneous. Made at the time of the events, with system-applied timestamps rather than dates typed in afterwards.
• Attributable. Every entry shows who made it. Anonymous edits invite the suggestion that the record was tidied up later.
• Complete. The unhelpful parts are in there too. A record that contains only the employer's good moments reads as curated, and tribunals notice.
• Tamper-evident. Versioning or an append-only history. If a record can be silently edited after a claim arrives, its reliability can be questioned even when nobody actually edited it.

Recording without over-collecting

Adjustment records routinely contain health information, which is special category data under UK GDPR. The instinct to write everything down has to be balanced against data minimisation: record what is needed to evidence the process, restrict access to the people the employee has shared it with, and set retention periods deliberately rather than keeping everything forever. The Information Commissioner's Office publishes guidance on handling this category of data.

This guide is general guidance, not legal advice. For advice on your specific obligations, speak to an employment law specialist or ACAS.