Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust v Dahir Ibrahim

Facts

Mr Ibrahim, a Muslim serving prisoner, was held at HMP Birmingham, where Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Trust provided primary healthcare. He had been prescribed Codeine, mainly for knee pain. Because it is an opiate, the prison never allowed Codeine to be kept in a prisoner's cell, so he had to take it under supervision at a medication hatch that opened only during fixed morning and afternoon hours. During Ramadan 2019 those hours fell within fasting hours. Codeine was left out of the Ramadan medication packs given to Muslim prisoners. From 6 May he declined to take it at the hatch. A GP prescribed Paracetamol in its place, and he later received Nefopam. He sued the Trust in the County Court at Birmingham under section 6(1) of the Human Rights Act 1998, alleging breaches of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights and Article 9, and discrimination on grounds of religion contrary to Article 14 read with those Articles. He abandoned a negligence claim during the trial. His Honour Judge Najib found that he had suffered no withdrawal symptoms and dismissed the Article 8 and 9 claims. The judge upheld the Article 14 claim: the Trust had not justified its failure to adopt an alternative way of giving him Codeine outside daylight hours. A declaration was granted and damages were refused. The Trust appealed.