| Previous Section | Index | Home Page |
Mr. Tom Levitt (High Peak): I think that I am the only Back-Bench Member who has sat through, and spoken on, every stage of the Bill's passage through the House. I am delighted that we have reached where we are today.
On various occasions, I have said to Conservative Members, "Remind me, why was it that you voted against similar measures time after time years ago?" Until the past few minutes, they could not remember. The hon. Member for Gainsborough (Mr. Leigh) obviously has stronger memories than other Conservative Members. I do not mean this unkindly, but the warmth that has emanated from repenting sinners has given great joy to Labour Members. I thank them for the contributions that they have made to our debates during the various stages of the Bill.
I say in response to the remarks of the hon. Member for Gainsborough that the Bill is a milestone and not a millstone. It is a step forwards, not a step backwards.
I shall make only two points, and the first concerns the awareness--for example, of employers and service providers--of the needs of disabled people. The present campaign is a stimulating one. It produces smiles and, perhaps, controversy but it gets people thinking, which is important. That is a role that the Disability Rights Commission will have to take on in future. In terms of awareness raising, it will be looking to good practice and disseminating it.
At the launch of the campaign--it is a good example to put on record--there was a contribution from B and Q. It spoke of its employment practices, which encourage disabled people to apply for and to be accepted as employees. It told of the disability awareness training that it gives to its non-disabled and disabled staff within its stores. It told of the expectation that its suppliers would have an equally positive attitude to disabled people. Tellingly, it told of the Norwich store which has specialised in making kitchen fittings for people in wheelchairs. It has discovered a gold mine, because disabled people have commercial needs. They go out and buy things, and a service provider who meets their needs will reap the benefits from that. There is a commercial argument for organisations including those 8 million people in their marketing plans, which will be a relief to the hon. Member for Gainsborough, who expressed doubts.
I shall tell the story of a receptionist in a local authority office close to where I live. He is blind, but he welcomes people to that office, functions very well as a receptionist and telephonist and is not disabled because the facilities are present to give him all the abilities that he needs to carry out that vital job and exceed the reasonable expectations that could be demanded of him.
I have told that story to make the point that the barriers that prevent disabled people from playing a full, positive and constructive role in society have been erected by us--not only the politicians, but able-bodied people, service providers, employers and anyone else who does not think about the consequences of their words, deeds and actions for disabled people. We can take those barriers down. We can give disabled people the emancipation that they deserve and that it is their right to have.
Mr. Peter Luff (Mid-Worcestershire):
The eerie light of consensus has illuminated the debate, although that did not characterise the debates in the previous Parliament, during which I frequently expressed exactly the same objectives as the hon. Member for Kingswood (Mr. Berry), but sought rather different mechanisms to secure them. We could never have foreseen that those loud and noisy discussions would end in such a way as they did today--not with a bang, but with a whimper, which is good. Disability issues should not be the subject of the fierce partisan battles that took place in the previous Parliament.
I congratulate the Minister on his opening remarks; he struck the right note, although there were hints of a return to partisan comments from other hon. Members. It is no doubt true that the Bill would probably not have been introduced by the previous Conservative Government--we can say that with a reasonable degree of certainty--but I am not so sure that that could be said of a Government led by my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond, Yorks (Mr. Hague), the Leader of the Opposition. He is committed to the measure. [Interruption.] If the hon. Member for Kingswood ever has the good fortune to serve in a Government, he will sometimes find himself at the Dispatch Box saying things with which he does not entirely agree. Such is the nature of collective responsibility.
It is worth putting on record the fact that the previous Government did a considerable amount on disability issues. When Baroness Thatcher was Prime Minister, she attached great importance to the welfare spending issues related to disability. Contrary to the myth the she constantly slashed expenditure, she trebled spending on benefits for the long-term sick and disabled; and her successor, my right hon. Friend the Member for Huntingdon (Mr. Major), continued the process.
We also introduced the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, which the chairman of the National Disability Council has described as a good Act, although I agree that David Grayson, who is a good friend of mine, wants that Act to be toughened. Indeed, the Bill does just that, but those were real and substantial achievements for disabled people which I hope the whole House would welcome. I rather resent the note that has been struck by some Labour Members, who have said that nothing happened for disabled people in the previous Parliament. A considerable amount happened.
Mr. Oliver Heald (North-East Hertfordshire):
Disability living allowance.
Mr. Luff:
From a sedentary position on the Front Bench, my hon. Friend reminds me about DLA. He is absolutely right to do so.
How do I approach this Third Reading debate? With mixed feelings--all my doubts remain about establishing a body with the powers that the commission could have, but the disability rights lobby still wants a commission to
be established. The mood in the House is clearly in favour of a commission, so this is the time to lie back and accept the inevitable. I can do so with a clear conscience because I am encouraged by what Ministers have said about how they expect the commission to use the powers being given to it.
It is right to emphasise our hope that the commission will use those powers in the way that Ministers hope it will use them. As my hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough (Mr. Leigh) said, clause 4--and, indeed, clause 5--contains considerable powers and they could harm the cause that the commission has been set up to help if they are used insensitively.
The Liberal spokesman talked about the omissions from the Bill, and I hope that the commission will consider not only employment matters, but issues of democracy. The House is still inaccessible to disabled people and that is one of the things that we should put right as a matter of the utmost urgency. In my previous incarnation in the House, my constituency contained New college, which is run by the Royal National Institute for the Blind in Worcester. Issues relating to blind and visually impaired people are at the forefront of my thinking and I hope that the commission will do what it can to improve voting forms.
I will put pressure on the Government to make it easier for disabled people to exercise their most fundamental right of all--the right to vote--and for people who are disabled but do not have visual disabilities to gain access to polling stations, which is often scandalously difficult to achieve. There are many issues for the commission to address that relate, directly or indirectly, to the way we carry out our business. I hope that it will do so with enthusiasm.
On a slightly partisan note, I hope that the commission will not be frightened of taking on the Government over their allowance for county social service departments. Despite all the good words that we have heard today about the great achievements of the Government, disabled people and their carers--in Worcestershire in particular--face serious problems because of the scandalously low funding increase offered by the Government. I hope that the commission will speak out on that, too.
Although I can give the establishment of the commission a rather less guarded welcome that might otherwise have been the case, I want to strike a note of dissent from everything that has been said about the Government's hearts and minds campaign. Ultimately, the fundamental point is that no Act of Parliament can ever change the way people behave. The real discrimination lies in people's hearts, and that is what must be tackled.
I have no objection to a hearts and minds campaign, but this is a bad one. When I first saw the poster about Kathy, outside Worcester Shrub Hill station, I thought that it was either advertising a sequel to a programme on homelessness or trying to attract people to a teacher training campaign. I could not work out what the poster was about and realised what it was advertising only today, when hon. Members referred to its subtext. I hope that the commission will do a much better job of winning the hearts and minds of the British people than the Department for Education and Employment is managing at present.
| Next Section
| Index | Home Page |