§ Lord Steel of Aikwoodasked 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
128WA
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 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.