Examination of Witnesses (Questions 460
- 463)
TUESDAY 23 MARCH 2004
MR COLIN
WILLMAN AND
MR STEPHEN
ALAMBRITIS
Q460 Lord Swinfen: I would like to
ask about the financial implications of the draft Bill, at the
moment, in particular to transport. How difficult do you think
it will be for small businesses in the transport industry to fund
the additional disability awareness training that will be required?
Mr Willman: It will be extremely
difficult because many of the transport companies are struggling.
Taxi companies, for instance, are having to pay a lot more for
their taxis to make them wheelchair friendly. They are also losing
customers to private hire because people with mobility problems
find wheelchair-accessible taxis difficult to get into. So they
have got a reduction in income and an increase in costs. So it
would be best, wherever possible, to make the access more available
for the disability awareness training to the smaller market. So
it is discriminating in favour of the small businesses to make
sure that people do get the—
Q461 Lord Swinfen: Are you satisfied
that that training is available at the moment and being properly
provided?
Mr Willman: I am satisfied it
is, in the area in which I operate, yes, which is the South East
of England.
Q462 Chairman: Who should pay for
the training, do you think?
Mr Alambritis: We have a point
about seeing whether the Government can part-fund some of the
training. I think this is one area where the Government can look
to part-fund with real belief in the area they are part-funding,
and that is to ensure access, mobility for disabled people whilst
recognising some of the problems of the taxi industry and the
private hire industry itself. I think it sends the right message
to our cabbies that the Government is eventually coming to their
help because they are always grumbling!
Q463 Chairman: In your evidence,
paragraph 9, you said you have no objection to extending the DDA
to volunteers. With the employment rules of the DDA, could they
simply be extended to cover volunteers or would they need adjustment
to take into account any special circumstances?
Mr Alambritis: The FSB is a volunteer
organisation itself, and therefore we looked at this long and
hard. In fact, if you look at employment tribunal cases the term
"worker" includes volunteers. So a volunteer to the
RSPCA, or to the FSB or to the another voluntary organisation,
they are volunteers, they are branch treasurers, branch chairman—whatever—within
the volunteer organisation and they come under the definition
of "worker". So there is experience. So we have no objection
to extending this, because volunteerism is very important to the
UK.
Chairman: That was the last question.
We have a division in the Lords, so could I thank you for attending?
There will be a transcript on the website, if you would like to
look at it. Anything else that you wish to send in to us we will
be happy to receive. If you would like to look back at the transcripts
of the other evidence and see if there is anything in that that
you would like to comment on, you can do so. Thank you very much
indeed for coming.
The Committee suspended for a division.
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