Examination of Witnesses (Questions 820
- 839)
820. CHAIRMAN: I think we will want to
know, Mr Reed, in terms of accessibility of these stations, what
these people are suffering from.
821. MR REED: Very good, I will endeavour
to make sure that we have that answer before you.
822. CHAIRMAN: This was the whole point
of your cross-examination this morning, or one of the points,
and if you put these figures forward, what do they mean in terms
of accessibility at the two stations that you are talking about?
823. MR REED: All we put them forward
as is an indicator of the extent to which there is a proportion
of the population that is disabled. That is the extent of the
information that we could obtain to put before your Lordships,
so in that sense we have done what we are able to do to identify
the position.
(Mr West) My Lords, perhaps I could assist with some further
information here, at the risk of boring you with more statistics.
To give you an example from the 2001 Census, 68 per cent of Newham
residents declared themselves to be in good health. That is the
lowest figure in London for any London borough. I could also tell
you that 17.3 per cent of the Newham population consider themselves
to have some limiting long-term illness and that Newham is fifth
out of 33 boroughs in the league. I hope that can assist with
some of your concerns about Disability Living Allowance.
824. CHAIRMAN: I do not want to go on
interrupting the evidence but we listened very carefully to what
you were saying this morning and I think my colleague Baroness
Fookes wants to ask a question about this.
825. BARNONESS FOOKES: Am I right in
thinking that the mobility allowance comes in the form of money
which may be used for the use of a car by the person concerned?
If in fact they have the use of a car, then they are not going
to be so affected by the absence of access at a railway or other
station, so do we have any figures on that?
826. MR REED: On the number of people
who are on the higher rate of Disability Living Allowance?
827. BARNONESS FOOKES: And who has access
to a car by virtue of the mobility allowance, and I think there
are other schemes that help people. Motability is what I am thinking
of.
828. MR REED: My Lady, we certainly do
not have those figures. As I understand it, this is the closest
that we could get to figures that would indicate the levels of
those who are disabled within those wards. As I understand it
not, but Mr West will be able to indicate if those are available.
829. CHAIRMAN: Mr Reed, I do not want
to hold your evidence up but you have got to this point and it
troubles a number of my colleagues. I wonder if we could clear
it up so far as Mr West is able to at this stage rather than to
come back to it when it is out of context.
830. MR REED: That is very wise.
831. CHAIRMAN: I have two colleagues
here who want to ask questions.
832. LORD BROOKE OF ALVERTHORPE: I am
amazed that you have not shown the lower mobility rate. The one
that you have given is the maximum one but there is a lower rate
that affects far more people who in fact are more mobile also
than the people you have defined there. Have you got figures for
those?
(Mr West) My Lords, in giving the evidence we did not want
to give you so much information that it would be difficult to
try and explain. If it would assist, I could give you an explanation
of how the Disability Tax Allowance works, as far as I am aware—and
I have to say that I do not hold much detailed knowledge of that
point. As far as I am aware, it is a tax-free benefit which is
available to all children and adults who need help with personal
care and have clear walking difficulties because they are physically
sick or mentally disabled. Insofar as Baroness Fookes' comments
about access to a car, clearly a lot of those persons do not hold
a driving licence so they would not be able to drive a car. Whether
they would be able to get hold of a car to make trips, like booking
a taxi for instance, whilst I am not able to answer the question
as to whether or not Disability Living Allowance can be used for
such payments, I would like to make the point that simply by being
able to book a taxi does not guarantee that you will be able to
make a trip at the time you actually want it. For instance, if
you had a hospital appointment at half nine in the morning and
you made every effort to book your taxi perhaps an hour or two
or even a day before, there is no actual guarantee that the taxi
would be able to actually get you to your destination on time.
The other point about taxis in Newham is that taxis do not normally
go up and down the Romford Road, as they do outside this place
for instance. There are very few taxis in the London Borough of
Newham because there is not the demand there for the use of taxis
as there is in the West End of London. I do not know if those
comments are helpful.
833. LORD YOUNG OF NORWOOD: You quoted
a national figure for disability of 0.7 per cent. I was puzzled
why you quoted that and you did not quote the London figure whereas
in another set of statistics you quoted one lot of figures for
the London Borough of Newham and then you quoted the London figure.
All I would ask for is some consistency.
(Mr West) That is a fair point, my Lord. I am afraid I do
not have the London figure; I just have the national figure. If
the London figure is available, I am sure we could make it available
to you.
834. LORD YOUNG OF NORWOOD: If I may
say so, that is not particularly helpful, is it, if on the one
hand you are giving us a set of statistics and you incorporate
London. For consistency you ought to have used London again. I
speculate that London also will have a pretty high disability
rate compared to the country as a whole. To give us a complete
picture, consistency would be helpful to us.
(Mr West) I take that point, my Lord.
835. MR REED: I do not know whether it
would assist but I have just taken instructions as to whether
or not we can get hold of that figure, and I understand that we
can and we will endeavour to do so by tomorrow.
836. CHAIRMAN: You can only take it as
far as you can. Please go on.
837. MR REED: I am grateful to you, my
Lord. We were on the question of the University of East London,
Mr West. Is there any information that you would like to provide
to the Committee on that?
(Mr West) Yes if I could perhaps move to the next slide.[39]
A further factor is the University of London's East London (Stratford)
campus at Water Lane, Stratford, edged in red on the slide. The
site has recently seen an increase in the provision of teaching
and office accommodation for students from over 4,000 in 2005
to over 6,000. Maryland Station is within 250 metres of the campus
and that station is the most convenient station for both staff
and students. By their nature, a significant proportion of students
will travel to and from the site in the off-peak and this will
assist in increasing usage for this station. It is also worthy
of note that from published figures in 2005 and 2006, which are
shown on the bottom of the slide, 7.4 per cent of the University
of East London students were in receipt of disabled student allowance
and, in addition, 1.9 per cent of the University's staff have
a disability. The University has actually set itself an employment
target of achieving 2.3 per cent of all staff by 2009.
838. CHAIRMAN: You will have to give
us those figures because they are not written down, I think.
839. LORD YOUNG OF NORWOOD GREEN: If
you are going to give us those figures, it would be useful if
you would disaggregate them and tell us those who have suffered
from reduced mobility as opposed to other disabilities.
39 Committee Ref: A2, Maryland Station: UEL Stratford
Location (NEWMLB-53_05-008) Back
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