Gordon Brown announced that the Disability Rights Commission, which is charged with overseeing and enforcing the rights of disabled people, will benefit from an increase in its budget of 14 per cent in real terms by 2006.

Forum Response: Royal National Institute of the Blind

A spokesman for the RNIB told ePolitix.com: "The extra funding announced for the Disability Rights Commission is to be welcomed. Blind and partially sighted people want a strong, well-resourced DRC to promote and enforce their rights.

"Equally they want the government to get back on track with the civil rights agenda and reconsider introducing a Disability Bill in the autumn.

"A new public sector duty to promote equality for disabled people is vitally needed to ensure the benefits of increased public expenditure extend to disabled people in their daily lives."

Forum Response: Shaw Trust

A spokesman for the Shaw Trust told ePolitix.com: "Yesterday the chancellor said that "we can never be complacent as long as people who can work are out of work" and yet the 2002 Spending Review made no special mention of the 3.2 million disabled people of working age who are currently not working. These people represent the largest single group who are excluded from the labour market.

"Currently the New Deal for Disabled People exists only as a pilot programme. The implication in yesterday's statement is that disabled job-seekers will only be able to access the same one stop service (Job Centre Plus) as everyone else.

"Shaw Trust is concerned that insufficient recognition has been given to the specialist support that NDDP offers, to both disabled job-seekers and employers. Since the NDDP Job-broking service commenced just over 12 months ago, Shaw Trust has enabled over 1,000 disabled people to enter employment; over 250 of them had been out of work for over 5 years.

"Shaw Trust has demonstrated that services for disabled people can work well, providing that they are given a clear focus and are properly resourced. Many of our clients believed they would never work again until the New Deal for Disabled People gave them an opportunity to prove otherwise. Let us hope that such opportunities will continue in the future so that disabled people can play their rightful part in the continuing prosperity of this country."

Forum Response: The Disabilities Trust

James Rye, external affairs director of The Disabilities Trust, told ePolitix.com: "Once again the key to the success of this spending review is whether the 6% annual increase in departmental expenditure will lead to real improvements on the ground over the next three years.

"It is no good just announcing headline grabbing expenditure figures that yet again fail to deliver the genuine improvements to their lives that disabled people want and need."