§ 72. Dr. Edmund Marshallasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he will seek powers to ensure that cinemas are so constructed or adapted to allow access of handicapped persons consistent with fire and safety regulations.
§ Mr. Alfred MorrisThe problems of access to cinemas for handicapped people is referred to in the report of the Silver Jubilee committee on improving access for disabled people. The committee's report, copies of which are available in the Library, recommended that the access sections of the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970 should be made mandatory and that there should be a review of fire precautions as they affect disabled people.
As I announced on 25 January in my reply to my hon. Friend the Member for Stoke-on-Trent, South (Mr. Ashley), Ministers will be considering the report's recommendations both urgently and sympathetically. I shall also be looking to the Silver Jubilee committee's successor body, the Committee on Restrictions Against Disabled People, to which I referred in the same reply, to carry forward the important work of improving access on which the Silver Jubilee committee has made such a significant impact.