DDB 82 Mayor
of London
Memorandum to the Joint Committee
on the Draft Disability Discrimination Bill
On behalf of the Mayor of
London
Executive summary
The Mayor welcomes the draft disability
Bill that will further develop rights for disabled people though
anti discrimination legislation.
In particular the Mayor strongly welcomes
the duty to promote disability equality for the public sector.
In linking disability discrimination to other forms of discrimination
this duty has the potential to make a significant contribution
to the eradication of discrimination against disabled people.
The Mayor has a duty to take account of equality opportunity
for Londoners under the GLA act and the GLA has considerable experience
of promoting disability equality. The Mayor is happy to share
this experience with the Joint Commission.
This experience has shown that, in
order for any public sector duty to promote disability equality
to be effective, action needs to
- be driven by a commitment to and
a comprehensive understanding of the social model of disability
- effectively involve organisations
of disabled people
- be championed at the most senior
levels within organisations
- be effectively prioritised and
given appropriate resources.
The
Mayor also recommend that
- the joint committee
should consider a duty to promote good community relations between
disabled and non-disabled people.
- action is taken to
move forward access in relation to aviation and shipping and to
speed up accessibility to trains
- the trigger for reasonable
adjustments should be consistent with the rest of the DDA
- there should be objective
standards in relation to justification for discrimination
- the definition of
disability be widened
- landlords should be
required not to and reasonably withhold consent for adaptations
to property.
1 Introduction
1.1 The Mayor welcomes the draft disability
Bill that will further develop rights for disabled people though
anti discrimination legislation. It is very evident from the recent
work the Mayor has done to promote disability equality through
Disability Capital 2003 that disabled people continue to face
widespread discrimination in their daily lives. It is clear that
the provisions of the draft bill are necessary to combat the levels
of discrimination still faced by disabled people.
1.2 In particular the Mayor strongly
welcomes the duty to promote disability equality for the public
sector. In linking disability discrimination to other forms of
discrimination through a direct parallel with the Race Relations
Amendment Act, this duty has the potential to make a significant
contribution to the eradication of discrimination against disabled
people.
1.3 The GLA has a duty to promote equality
of opportunity under the GLA act and this includes equality for
disabled people. The GLA has some considerable experience of
issues relating to such a duty and would be happy to share this
with the joint commission. This was recognised by Maria Eagle
Minister for Disabled People when speaking at the Mayor's first
disability equality conference held in December 2003.
1.4 The Mayor also welcomes
- The extension of the
DDA to cover most functions of public authorities.
- The extension of the DDA to cover
discrimination in relation to transport
- The promise of further clauses
to prohibit local authorities discriminating against disabled
councillors
- The extension of the definition
of disability to clearly include more people with HIV, cancer
and multiple sclerosis.
- The extension of the DDA's duties
on landlords and managers of premises to include a duty to make
reasonable adjustments to policies, practices and procedures and
provide auxiliary aids and services, where reasonable.
- Coverage of any club with 25 or
more members.
- and the pledge that the full Bill
will include an end-date for rail vehicle accessibility
2 The
Role
of the Mayor and
the London Assembly
2.1 The Mayor's role is to develop London-wide
strategies, in partnership with service providers and other interested
parties for major public services in the capital. The Mayor's
responsibilities are wide ranging and embrace the police, transport,
fire and emergency planning, regeneration, planning, sustainability
and environmental issues, cultural affairs, health concerns and
equalities issues, as well as the general promotion of London
to the wider world.
2.2 To be effective, the Mayor must obtain support
for the strategies that are developed. This means working with
a wide range of organisations - the boroughs, service providers,
the business community, community organisations, professional
and interest groups - in building a shared vision for the future
development of London. The Mayor has a range of specific powers
and duties, and a general power to do anything that will promote
economic and social development and environmental improvement
in London. Before using many of his powers the Mayor must consult
with Londoners, and in all cases, the Mayor must promote equality
of opportunity.
3 The
Mayor's duty on equalities
3.1 Under its enabling legislation,
the Greater London Authority (GLA) Act 1999, the GLA is charged
with express duties relating to equalities. Under Section 30
of the Act the GLA has general powers concerned with the promotion
of economic development, wealth creation, social development and
the improvement of the environment in the Greater London area.
3.2 In exercising the general power
the Mayor is required under Section 32 of the Act to consult with
'such bodies or persons as the Authority may consider appropriate
' and under Section 33(1) to make appropriate arrangements to
secure that in formulating the policies and proposals to be included
within Mayoral strategies, due regard is had to the principle
of equality of opportunity for all.
3.3 Section 404 of the GLA Act 1999
requires that in the exercise of functions, the GLA, whether acting
by the Assembly or the Mayor, shall comply with the need to 'promote
equality of opportunity for all persons irrespective of their
race, sex, disability, age, sexual orientation or religion ' and
to 'eliminate unlawful discrimination and 'to promote good relations
between persons of different racial groups, religious beliefs
and sexual orientation '.
4 Public Sector Duty
4.1 The Mayor welcomes the clause of
the Bill that places a duty on public sector organisations to
promote disability equality. It is a fundamentally important
move forward and recognition that disability discrimination is
analogous to discrimination on grounds of race and gender.
4.2 In this respect it is very important
that there is a clear parity in specific duties with the Race
Relations Amendment Act. The Mayor believes that public sector
bodies should be required to develop and publish effective disability
equality schemes and have a specific employment duty to monitor
the proportion of disabled people among their existing staff,
and applicants for jobs, promotion and training and publish the
results every year.
4.3 It has also proved to be important
to ensure the setting of challenging targets to move towards a
workforce that reflects the community it serves. It is fundamentally
important that effective strategies are developed for the recruitment
of disabled people and that this be done in parallel and with
a similar level of priority and commitment to other equalities
strands.
4.4 One area where there is not parity
with the Race Relations Amendment Act is a duty to promote good
community relations. One of the most shocking conclusions of
the Mayor's survey of disabled Londoners was the unacceptable
level of hate crime experienced by disabled people. 50% of respondents
to the survey said that they had experienced abuse or bullying
and the report Another Planet? Catalogues a disturbing range of
anecdotal experience of abuse on the grounds of impairment.
4.5 The Mayor believes that this experience
has the same routes as other areas of hate crime and a duty similar
to the Race Relations Amendment Act to promote community relations
would provide an effective strategic route to prioritise action
in this area. It would also provide a driver for the effective
engagement of disabled people and disabled people's organisations
in community cohesion strategies and ensure the promotion of identity
for distinct communities, for example the Deaf community.
4.6 The GLA has a duty to promote equality
of opportunity under the GLA act and this includes equality for
disabled people. The GLA has some considerable experience of
issues relating to such a duty and would be happy to share this
with the joint commission. The Mayor in particular would like
to highlight the following areas.
4.7 In order for any public sector
duty to promote disability equality to be effective, it is fundamentally
important that action taken is driven by a commitment to and a
comprehensive understanding of the social model of disability.
4.8 The Mayor has endorsed the social
model as follows
The GLA rejects the medical model
of disability and accepts:
- that disability is a social phenomenon
- that while many individuals have
physical or sensory impairments or learning difficulties or are
living with mental health needs, it is the way society responds
to these which creates disability and not the impairment
- that disablism is a form of oppression
in the same way as is for example racism, sexism and homophobia.
The medical model of disability
encourages explanations for the discrimination and disadvantage
experienced by disabled people in terms of the features of an
individual's body. The social model, however, encourages explanations
in terms of characteristics of social organisation. The social
model of disability makes the important distinction between 'impairment'
and 'disability' and is the response of the disabled people's
civil rights movement to the oppression of disabled people. Disability
is caused by 'barriers' or elements of social organisation that
take no or little account of people who have impairments. It follows
that if disabled people are to be able to join in mainstream society,
which is their human right, the way society is organised must
be changed. Removing the barriers that exclude (disable) people
who have impairments will bring about this change.
4.9 The Mayor believes that it is important
that there is a specific reference made within any code of practice
to the social model and effective strategies developed to ensure
effective public ownership and understanding of the model.
4.10 It is important that disability
equality is championed at the most senior levels if institutional
discrimination against disabled people is to be effectively countered
within public authorities. For this to be effective and seen
to be effective by disabled people, it is essential that disabled
people undertake this role.
4.11 It is important to challenge organisational
cultures that exclude and discriminate against disabled people.
Taking positive action through a comprehensive disability equality
strategy and providing the tools to implement this are very important.
4.12 Public authorities need to develop
effective consultation strategies with disabled people through
effective representative organisations controlled by disabled
people.
4.13 Appropriate resources need to
be allocated as a priority to the disability equality initiatives.
It is too often the experience of disabled people that this is
not the case.
5 Transport
5.1 Clause 3 of the draft Bill provides
for the extension of the DDA to cover discrimination in relation
to the use of a means of transport. At present section 19(5) DDA
excludes anything consisting of the use of a means of transport
from Part III of the Act. This causes major problems for disabled
people.
5.2 This is clearly highlighted in
the Mayor's interim report on the result of the survey disabled
Londoners, Another Planet?. The results of the survey contain
considerable detailed anecdotal experience of direct discrimination
in accessing public transport by disabled people, even when the
mode of transport is accessible. Almost 75 per cent of
respondents quoted personal experience about the difficulty of
travelling on London buses; ramps not working, drivers refusing
to use them, buses not close enough to the kerb, wheelchair spaces
taken up by buggies, buses pulling away before people were in
place, lack of equality training, inaccessible information and
experiencing problems with other passengers.
5.3 The removal of this exclusion,
and its replacement with a framework which allows regulations
to successively bring into coverage by Part 3 DDA all different
modes of transport, including but not limited to: taxis, private
hire vehicles, trams, private rental or car hire, buses and trains
are an essential extension of disabled people's rights.
5.4 Clearly equal access to transport
is a fundamental part of ensuring that disabled people have effective
civil rights and is therefore imperative that the timetable for
regulations to lift the part three exemption are set out and that
the regulations are implemented as soon as possible.
5.5 The Mayor would also urge the Joint
Committee to press the government on moving forwards access to
aviation and shipping through the review of the codes of practice,
ensuring effective involvement of disabled people in this process.
Also it is important that work is done to speed up the accessibility
of trains to disabled people and the Mayor would urge the Joint
Committee recommends an end date of 2020 at the latest.
6 Discrimination by public authorities
6.1 Clause 4 of the draft Bill makes
it unlawful for a public authority to discriminate against a disabled
person in carrying out its functions. The Mayor believes that
this clause should be amended in three important areas.
6.2 It should make it clear that public
authorities have a clearly stated anticipatory duty to make reasonable
adjustments. It is fundamentally important that disability equality
should be built-in as a matter of course whilst developing functions
and not bolted on at the end of a process. This is both inappropriate
and potentially expensive. The recent experience with access
and City Hall is a very good example of the need for an anticipatory
duty.
6.3 The Mayor is also concerned that
the trigger for reasonable adjustments should be consistent with
other parts of the DDA and would prefer to see the trigger of
"substantial disadvantage" rather than "very much
less favourable".
6.4 In relation to "justification"
the Mayor is concerned that there should be objective standards
established because the reason given for discrimination can be
based on wrongly held prejudices and stereotypes of disabled people,
and that, so long as such beliefs were viewed by the judge as
"reasonably" held, they could justify discrimination.
7 Definition of disability
7.1 The extension of definition of
disability to cover people living with cancer, HIV infection and
multiple sclerosis is welcome and necessary. However, the Mayor
believes that the Bill presents a good opportunity to widen the
definition to correct the current anomalous position that some
disabled people find themselves in proving that they are disabled
as defined by the act. Specifically
- The extension should cover all
people with progressive conditions from point of diagnosis.
- Disabled people in receipt of certain
specified disability benefits should automatically meet the definition
of disability under the act
- Serious consideration should be
given to covering more appropriately people living with mental
illness, including removing the requirement that a mental illness
must be "clinically well recognised", revising the list
of normal day-to-day activities to include "the ability to
communicate with others" and to ensure that self-harming
behaviour is covered and that for individuals whose day-to-day
activities are substantially affected as a result of depression
the requirement that the effects last twelve months should be
reduced to six months.
8 Housing
8.1 I welcome the provisions within
clause five of the Bill in relation to the letting and disposal
of property. However I am concerned that a key Task Force recommendation,
which the Government agreed in 2001 to implement, should have
been included in the draft Bill namely:
Landlords should not be allowed to
withhold consent unreasonably from a disabled person to make changes
to the physical features of the premises, although the landlord
should not have to meet the costs.
Both the disability capital survey
and the London household survey indicates that disabled people
have considerable problems in the area of housing. 21% of people
indicated that access to housing was a priority issue and there
is considerable anecdotal experience reported of difficulties
getting appropriate consent from landlords to make adjustments
to enhance access.
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