Recommendations
14. To
improve the accountability of public bodies for their accessibility
performance, the Department for Transport should work with other
government departments to provide more detailed analysis and commentary
for the accessibility statistics. Similarly, the Department should
work with local authorities to help publish
localised accessibility statistics. (Paragraph 16)
15. The Government
should protect bus service funding in the next Spending Review.
(Paragraph 26)
16. When the Government
reviews its exemption for bus and coach staff from complying with
EU regulations on disability awareness training, it should survey
potential users to establish whether perceptions of disability
unawareness has been making them reluctant to travel. (Paragraph
31)
17. While the localism
agenda is reducing the Department for Transport's influence on
how accessibility is implemented, the Department cannot absolve
itself from a role in guiding and advising those communities to
fully embrace the requirements of accessibility. (Paragraph 37)
18. In the reform
of the Planning Practice Guidance, which follows the introduction
of the National Planning Policy Framework, the guidance on Transport
Assessments should not only be retained but strengthened in its
coverage of accessibility requirements. (Paragraph 51)
19. The forthcoming
Transport Strategy offers the Department for Transport an opportunity
to join up existing strategies that will have an influence on
accessibility, including on the 'door-to-door' travel experience
and physical accessibility of transport. It should also set out
the arrangements in Government for ensuring that the transport
accessibility of public services does not remain in departmental
silos. (Paragraph 58)
20. We recommend that
the Cabinet Office convenes a working group of Ministers and officials
to improve cross-government working on accessibility. The transport,
education, health, work and pensions and communities and local
government departments should form its core membership. Consideration
should also be given to how processes aimed at checking that sustainable
development is embedded across government, including the Cabinet
Office's reviews of departmental business plans, could include
consideration of transport-accessibility to public services. (Paragraph
64)
21. The Department
for Transport should work with the Local Government Association
to develop a web portal to allow local authorities to share good
practice examples of accessibility-focused projects. (Paragraph
68)
22. The Government
should publish up to date guidance which makes a compelling case
for accessibility to be addressed, not just by local authorities
but by all central government departments. Departmental Business
Plans should explicitly state how each department is taking forward
accessibility. The inter-departmental working group on accessibility
that we have recommended should then hold those departments to
account through regular reviews of these Plans. In responding
to this report, the Department for Transport should set out the
actions it will take in the light of its review of accessibility
planning. It should seek to implement the evaluation's recommendations
swiftly. (Paragraph 74)
23. The Government
should widen the scope of the existing review of school transport
to include all other local transport funding. Such a review should
consider how greater efficiencies could be achieved by pooling
budgets to achieve greater procurement efficiencies or sharing
vehicle use for different purposes. (Paragraph 79)
24. The Government
should review its transport funding for local authorities to ensure
that pro-accessibility services that are dependent particularly
on revenue rather than capital expenditure are not disproportionately
curtailed. (Paragraph 82)
25. The Department
for Transport should extend its work on measuring the social value
of bus services to incorporate all other modes of public transport.
Calculating the social impacts of transport investment decisions,
using these values, should be a mandatory part of the Department's
investment appraisal guidance. (Paragraph 83)
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