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Disability Discrimination Act 1995: Historic Buildings

Lord Steel of Aikwood asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will issue regulations as provided for in Section 21(3) of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 exempting historic or listed buildings from the provisions of Section 21(2) of the Act.[HL974]

The Minister of State, Department for Education and Employment (Baroness Blackstone): When in force, Section 21(2) of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 will require service providers to take reasonable steps to remove, alter, or provide a way of avoiding physical features of premises which make it impossible or unreasonably difficult for disabled people to use a service. Alternatively, they can provide the service by another reasonable means.

Planning Policy Guidance Note (PPG 15) issued by the Department for the Environment, Transport and the Regions makes it clear that "it is important in principle that disabled people should have dignified easy access to and within historic buildings", and that with a proper approach "it should normally be possible to plan suitable access for disabled people without compromising a building's special interest". English Heritage's booklet Easy Access to Historic Properties is designed to help those who own, manage, or are professionally concerned with historic properties to strike a balance between conservation and access.

The Disability Discrimination Act, in common with the Sex Discrimination Act and the Race Relations Act, cannot require anything to be done that would contravene another piece of legislation. Where a service provider must get statutory consent to a

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particular alteration, including listed building or scheduled monument consent, and that consent is not given, the Disability Discrimination Act will not have been contravened. However, a service provider would still need to take whatever other steps under the Act were reasonable to provide the service.

The Government will be consulting on proposals for regulations when they have announced the timetable for introducing the remaining rights in Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act, including those in Section 21.

England: Analysis of National Curriculum Tests 1994-1997

Baroness Blatch asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will publish data for England showing for all state schools, independent and all schools taken together, the percentage of all 7 year-old pupils in each of the years 1994 to 1997 passing National Curriculum tests at level 2 or better together with the average level attained per pupils and the corresponding average subject age of pupils, calculated using the relationship between expected National Curriculum level and actual pupil age published by the Department for Education and Employment, in the following subjects; mathematics, reading (where appropriate, showing data separately for the reading task and the reading comprehension test) and writing, showing separately for the state schools the percentages and averages for local education authority schools, voluntary schools (including together voluntary controlled, voluntary aided and special agreement schools) and grant-maintained schools showing data separately for boys, girls and all pupils and including for each category of school, the number of schools and the number of 7 year-old pupils.[HL866]

Baroness Blackstone: The attached tables present the information requested for (i) reading, (ii) writing, and (iii) mathematics for 1994 to 1997 for boys and girls separately. The department does not collect individual pupil data at Key Stage 1 and therefore cannot calculate the age standardised levels attained.

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Key Stage 1 Table 1: Percentage of 7 year-olds attaining level 2 and above in the reading test/task Per cent.

	1997			1996			1995			1994
	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls
LEA Maintained	73	82	77	70	81	75	71	81	76	73	83	78
LEA Maintained Voluntary school	81	89	85	78	87	83	79	87	83	80	88	84
Grant Maintained	83	90	86	81	88	84	81	88	85	80	88	84
All Maintained schools	75	84	80	73	83	78	73	83	78	75	85	80
Independent School	96	98	97	95	97	96	96	99	98	95	98	97
All schools	75	85	80	73	83	78	73	83	78	76	85	80

Table 2: Average level attained by 7 year-olds in the reading test/task

	1997			1996			1995			1994
	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls
LEA Maintained	1.8	2.0	1.9	1.9	2.1	2.0	1.9	2.2	2.0	1.9	2.1	2.0
LEA Maintained Voluntary school	1.9	2.1	2.0	2.0	2.2	2.1	2.1	2.3	2.2	2.1	2.2	2.1
Grant Maintained	2.0	2.2	2.1	2.1	2.3	2.2	2.2	2.3	2.2	2.1	2.2	2.1
All Maintained schools	1.8	2.0	1.9	1.9	2.1	2.0	2.0	2.2	2.1	2.0	2.2	2.1
Independent School	2.4	2.6	2.5	2.5	2.6	2.6	2.6	2.7	2.7	2.5	2.6	2.6
All schools	1.8	2.0	1.9	1.0	2.1	2.0	2.0	2.2	2.1	2.0	2.2	2.1

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Table 3: Percentage of 7 year-olds attaining level 2 and above in the writing test Per cent.

	1997			1996			1995			1994
	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls
LEA Maintained	73	83	78	72	83	77	73	83	78	58	72	65
LEA Maintained Voluntary school	80	89	84	79	88	83	80	88	84	65	77	71
Grant Maintained	82	90	86	82	89	85	81	89	85	77	77	71
All Maintained schools	75	85	80	74	85	79	75	85	80	61	74	67
Independent School	94	97	96	95	97	96	96	99	97	88	95	92
All schools	75	85	80	74	85	79	75	85	80	61	74	67

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Table 4: Average level attained by 7 year-olds in the writing test

	1997			1996			1995			1994
	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls
LEA Maintained	1.7	1.9	1.8	1.7	1.9	1.8	1.8	2.0	1.9	1.6	1.9	1.8
LEA Maintained Voluntary school	1.8	2.0	1.9	1.8	2.0	1.9	1.9	2.1	2.0	1.7	1.9	1.8
Grant Maintained	1.8	2.0	1.9	1.8	2.0	1.9	2.0	2.1	2.0	1.8	2.0	1.9
All Maintained schools	1.7	1.9	1.8	1.7	1.9	1.8	1.8	2.0	1.9	1.7	1.9	1.8
Independent School	2.1	2.2	2.1	2.1	2.2	2.2	2.4	2.5	2.5	2.2	2.4	2.3
All schools	1.7	1.9	1.8	1.7	1.9	1.8	1.8	2.0	1.9	1.7	1.9	1.8

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Table 5: Percentage of seven year-olds attaining level 2 and above in the mathematics testPer cent.

	1997			1996			1995			1994
	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls
LEA Maintained	80	84	82	79	82	80	75	79	77	78	82	80
LEA Maintained Voluntary school	86	89	87	85	87	86	82	84	83	83	86	85
Grant Maintained	87	89	88	86	87	87	83	86	84	82	87	84
All Maintained schools	82	85	84	81	83	82	77	80	79	80	83	81
Independent School	97	98	97	96	97	96	96	97	97	95	97	96
All schools	82	85	84	81	84	82	77	81	79	80	83	82

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Table 6: Average level attained by seven year-olds in the mathematics test

	1997			1996			1995			1994
	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls	Boys	Girls	Boys and Girls
LEA Maintained	2.0	2.0	2.0	1.9	2.0	1.9	1.9	1.9	1.9	1.9	2.0	2.0
LEA Maintained Voluntary school	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.1	2.1	2.1
Grant Maintained	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.1	2.1
All Maintained schools	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0	1.9	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0
Independent School	2.4	2.4	2.4	2.4	2.4	2.4	2.5	2.4	2.4	2.5	2.5	2.5
All schools	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0	1.9	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0	2.0

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Table 7: Number of Schools and 7 year-olds participating in the Key Stage 1 assessment tests

	1997		1996		1995		1994
	Schools	Pupils	Schools	Pupils	Schools	Pupils	Schools	Pupils
LEA Maintained	10,333	426,601	10,325	418,396	10,159	419,060	4,982	186,266
LEA Maintained Voluntary school	5,841	163,529	5,851	159,446	5,815	159,231	3,640	90,139
Grant Maintained	392	16,481	363	15,176	329	13,975	165	7,240
All Maintained schools	16,566	606,611	16,539	593,018	16,303	592,266	8,787	283,645
Independent school	274	5,765	235	4,960	211	4,444	162	3,465
All schools	16,840	612,376	16,774	597,978	16,514	596,710	8,949	287,110

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