Disability Discrimination Act (2005)
The Disability Discrimination Bill that had been going through Parliament received Royal Assent on 7 April and is now law. We are delighted that it has completed its journey through Parliament and welcome the government’s delivery of their 2001 manifesto commitment to extent disabled people’s civil rights with measures in this Act.
Different parts of the Act will though come into force this year and next, with many of the most significant parts becoming active in mid and late 2006.
RNIB worked on the then Bill as part of the Disability Charities Consortium (Leonard Cheshire, Mencap, Mind, RADAR, RNIB, RNID, Scope).
Read the DCC’s press release welcoming Royal Assent of the Bill.
Summary of what the Bill will do:
Transport
Currently transport services are not covered under part three of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), meaning that disabled people can be discriminated against. For example, a bus driver could refuse to let someone onto a bus with their guide dog. Currently the DDA provides no means of challenging this kind of blatant discrimination. The Act includes most transport operators within the DDA, meaning they will have to make reasonable adjustments to their policies, practices and procedures that discriminate against disabled people and also provide auxiliary aids and services, like accessible information, where they enable or facilitate disabled people’s access.
Rail: The government announced that 2020 will be the date by which all older inaccessible rail vehicles will have to be taken out of service. In the House of Lords Peers pressed the government to put this date in the then Bill so that it cannot be put back if rail operators struggle to meet the deadline and they agreed.
Exemptions: Currently around 50 per cent of rail vehicles have some form of exemption from accessibility regulations because they are not fully compliant with accessibility standards. Any new exemptions will have to be approved by Parliament and also be listed in an annual report that will now be produced by the government listing exemptions.
Refurbishment of older trains: Between the time when the Act comes into force and 2020, when older trains are removed from service, all trains that do not comply with accessibility standards will have to have audio-visual information systems fitted when they are refurbished. This will be of huge benefit to people with sight problems and also people with hearing impairments.
Aviation and shipping: These two areas are not included in the Act as they are being dealt with separately. The Department for Transport will publish a review at the end of 2005 on whether these sectors are adhering to voluntary codes of practice on disabled people’s access. The review will make recommendations on whether these sectors should be brought within the DDA.
Services of Public Authorities
Some organisations such as the Highways Agency or the Benefits Agency have ambiguous status under the DDA, meaning that discrimination cases are hard to prove against them. The Act brings all their public services under the DDA.
Accommodation
Currently there is no protection for disabled people from landlords who unreasonably refuse to let them make changes to their own accommodation in order to make it more accessible and also to communal areas that are inaccessible.
The government has agreed to set up a working group, chaired by a senior civil servant to look at how the issue around communal areas can be tackled.
They have also agreed that the current legal protection under the 1927 Landlord and Tenant Act is not clear, and needs to be updated so that the Disability Rights Commission can issue Codes of Practice on standards expected of landlords and also help individual disabled people take cases if they feel they have been discriminated against.
The Act will also require landlords and those letting agents to provide blind and partially sighted people with contracts in a format they can read, such as large print, audio tape or braille, or at least to read it to them.
Extending who is protected by the DDA
The Act extends the DDA to cover people who have some forms of cancer, HIV/AIDS and Multiple Sclerosis. We were disappointed that the government did not accept the case for giving people with depression greater protection by including them within the definition of who has a disability under the 1995 Disability Discrimination Act.
Duties on the public sector
The Act places a duty on the public sector to promote equality of opportunity for disabled people and to eliminate discrimination. This duty is anticipatory, meaning that public authorities will have to review all their policies, practices, procedures and services to make sure they do not discriminate against disabled people and ensure that all their services are planned with disabled people’s needs fully considered in advance.
Public bodies will have to produce Action Plans on how they intend to meet their duties and review their progress annually.
We warmly welcomed the government’s confirmation that the duty will cover schools as well.
Private clubs
They are not covered under the DDA at present, meaning that a disabled person wishing to join a private members’ club would not be able to challenge a refusal of their membership request or less favourable treatment because of their disability. The Act will cover all private clubs (clubs that have proper membership application procedures) with 25 or more members.
Background
Draft Disability Discrimination Bill
In December 2003 the government published the long awaited draft Disability Discrimination Bill. This draft Bill was considered for pre-legislative scrutiny by a Joint Committee of MPs and Peers, who took evidence from disability organisations, business representatives and Ministers.
The Committee’s was published in May 2004 and contained their recommendations to government on how the draft Bill should be changed before the Bill was introduced into Parliament.
RNIB, as part of the Disability Charities submitted written evidence to the Joint Committee considering the Bill and gave oral evidence to the Committee on 3 March, which is available on the Committee’s website.
We welcomed the Joint Committee’s report, which contained important recommendations for all disabled people. We gave the government’s response a mixed welcome, rejecting as it did many recommendations that we supported in our evidence to the Committee.
Other resources
