Title (Hansard, 10 July 1981)

§ Mr. Wigley
I beg to move, That this House doth agree with the Lords in the said amendment.

Mr. Deputy Speaker
With this it will be convenient to take Lords amendments Nos. 20 to 23.

§ Mr. Wigley
This and the associated amendments are consequential and technical amendments to the long title of the Bill, consequent upon matters that we have already discussed. There is no need to go into great detail about them.
I should, however, like to take this opportunity to welcome the fact that the Bill is likely to reach the statute book in a matter of days rather than weeks, and that this should have happened in the International Year of Disabled People. This is most appropriate. The great danger that disabled people have felt over the past months and felt in the run-up to this year is that people would give great attention to the needs of the disabled during 1981 but that at the end of the year their attention might move on to some equally deserving cause and that there would be no lasting benefit to the disabled. One way of ensuring lasting benefit is to have changes enshrined in the law with which people have to live and the benefits of which will accrue to the disabled for years to come.
I hope that the Bill will benefit disabled people. We have yet to see how some of the provisions will work in practice. The Minister has stated that the Government will keep an eye on some aspects of the measure to see whether they need to be strengthened. One clause provides for the Government to come back with further recommendations to strengthen the legislation relating to provisions for the disabled. I hope that the Bill will be a significant step forward. It is not an earth-shattering measure, but I hope that it will have some practical benefit.
I should like to thank my sponsors who have stood by me over many months during which the Bill has been going through Parliament. I also thank the outside bodies, particularly the Wales Council for the Disabled and RADAR, which have been most helpful, the Department, and the parliamentary draftsmen who have helped me to redraft parts of the Bill into an acceptable form. I also thank the 27 disablement organisations that have campaigned to attract support for some of the concepts in the Bill, and also the 329 hon. Members who supported the early-day Motion which helped to bring the matter into focus.

§ Mr. John Golding (Newcastle-under-Lyme)
Those hon. Members associated with the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 are pleased that the attempt has been made to amend the Act. This is perhaps not the end. Many of us have been disappointed that insufficient progress has been made in respect of access. This Bill represents an improvement, although many of us feel that the House will have to return to the issue. There is, nevertheless, gratitude among all those concerned with access and mobility that the Bill takes us one step along the road to providing total access to public buildings and other places for the disabled.

§ Mr. John Major (Huntingdonshire)
I wish to apologise to the hon. Member for Caernarvon (Mr. Wigley) for the fact that I was unable to remain in the House throughout today's discussions on this most important Bill. The hon. Gentleman was sufficiently open-minded to describe the Bill as a relatively modest measure. That is true in the sense that it seeks to give assurance within a limited sphere. However, there are in this country half a million severely disabled people and well over a million who are partially disabled. They will be pleased about the fact that in this, of all years, a Back Bencher, with the considerable assistance, in some respects, of the Government, has been able to pilot this measure on to the statute book. I am most grateful for the opportunity to congratulate without reservation his very considerable achievement.

§ Mr. Rossi
These are technical amendments necessitated by amendments that we have already agreed.
I take this opportunity of responding to the hon. Gentleman and his references to what is needed to be done for the disabled by saying that we should not be content just with the International Year of Disabled People and, once that is over, cease to do anything more for them. It is not the Government's intention that that should be so. We regard this acceptable Bill as one of a number of things that have started this year and which I hope will continue and make the lives of those less fortunate than ourselves much more tolerable than they have been up to now.
I congratulate the hon. Member for Caernarvon (Mr. Wigley) on having seized his position in the ballot to choose this as a subject to bring before the House, so that we have had this opportunity to legislate upon it. I congratulate him also on having piloted the Bill safely to harbour—assisted with a fair wind from the Government. I think that all the disabled will, in their turn, give the hon. Member their heartfelt thanks and congratulations for what he has achieved.

Mr. Deputy Speaker
Perhaps I, too, may be allowed to congratulate the hon. Member for Caernarvon (Mr. Wigley) on his achievement.