Visitor Access and Facilities in the House of Commons

Written evidence submitted by the Royal Association for Disability Rights (RADAR) (VA 03)

Radar (Royal Association for Disability Rights) is a pan-disability organisation led by people with lived experience of disability or health conditions. Our vision is a just and equal society whose strength is human difference. Our mission is to enable individuals, networks and policy-makers to do things differently – and better.

· We provide support to the All-Party Parliamentary Disability Group, co-chaired by Baroness Campbell of Surbiton and the Rt Hon Anne McGuire MP.

· We run the MP Disability Dialogue through which we give disabled people and MPs practical tools on how to arrange and get the best out of a meeting.

· Our MP’s Guide on Disability provides an understanding of common barriers disabled people face and how to interact effectively with disabled people. This Guide is also available on the House of Commons Intranet.

Many disabled people visit the House of Commons for personal or business reasons. For instance, they may give evidence to a Select Committee, or they may meet their MP, or they may take a tour inside the Palace of Westminster. However disabled people have reported that they find it difficult to get information about access facilities in the Palace of Westminster. Furthermore, the teams in the House of Commons do not always seem aware of the facilities that they have available for disabled visitors. For example, last week we were told by the House of Commons’ events team that there is no parking for disabled visitors; however when we went to the Serjeant at Arms, they were quick to confirm that MPs can request up to two disabled parking places for visitors inside the Palace of Westminster.

In addition to the above, Radar is keen to work in partnership with the House of Commons and MPs to take practical steps to improve access for disabled people. In our current project we work with Wideaware, a disability equality training company, to research the content of an online learning tool for MPs and parliamentary staff (including people who work in the House of Commons).

October 2011

Prepared 20th December 2011