1 Introduction
1. The Committee previously took evidence on disabled
people's access to transport in November 2003, and published its
Report in March 2004.[1]
The Government responded in May 2004,[2]
and introduced the long-awaited Disability Discrimination Bill
in the House of Lords on 25 November 2004.[3]
2. We decided to follow-up our earlier Report with
a supplementary inquiry for a number of reasons: first, we continued
to receive representations from disabled people who suggested
their access to transport was not improving or was even getting
worse; second, we wanted to explore further certain points the
Government made in its response to our report; and third, we wanted
to assess the pace of change and see what practical difference
was made by the entry into force of the access duties under Part
III of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 on 1 October
2004.
3. On 1 December 2004, we took evidence from
the Disability Rights Commission (DRC), the Disabled Persons Transport
Advisory Committee (DPTAC), Mencap, Arriva plc, the Association
of Train Operating Companies (ATOC), Merseytravel, an official
from the Department for Transport, and the Parliamentary Under-Secretary
of State at the Department for Transport, Charlotte Atkins MP.
We also received written evidence from a large number of organisations
and individuals. We are grateful to all those who helped us in
this inquiry.
4. We found that disabled people's access to public
transport is generally improving, but often very slowly. In some
cases, progress is made only by the bringing of test cases before
the courts. We find this frustrating and potentially wasteful;
the relevant primary legislation allows the Government to introduce
regulations which could clarify the type of improvements transport
operators should make, but it has not done so. We are also disappointed
that well-meaning attempts to introduce uniform improvements sometimes
deny access to public transport for individual disabled people
who have been travelling happily for some time. The spirit of
the legislation—improved access—needs to cut through
formalities.
1 Transport Committee, Disabled People's Access
to Transport, Sixth Report of Session 2003-04, HC 439 [2003-04] Back
2
The Government's Response to the Transport Committee's Report
on Disabled People's Access to Transport, Cm 6184 Back
3
Disability Discrimination Bill [Lords] [Bill 6 (2004-05)] Back
|
