§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what plans he has to evaluate the operation of the employment and goods and services section of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. [20281]
§ Mr. Alan HowarthThe Department has an ongoing, long-term research strategy to evaluate the operation of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). This takes in employers, service providers and individual disabled people. My right hon. Friend the Minister for Employment, Welfare to Work and Disability Rights, announced the latest phase of this research in a speech to the Association of Disabled Professionals on 6 December. It will review in a systematic and collective way information on cases brought in the Courts and Industrial Tribunals and how they are resolved. The results will be available to the Task Force which I will chair which is to consider how best to secure comprehensive, enforceable civil rights for disabled people.