Libraries (Model Byelaws) (Hansard, 7 November 1989)

§ Mr. Ashley
To ask the Minister for the Arts if he will make it his policy that paragraph 4 of the model byelaws for library authorities issued by his Department will not be used as justification for excluding people with physical disabilities, mental handicaps or AIDS from entering and using libraries.

§ Mr. Luce
Model byelaw 4 was intended to give library authorities the power to exclude from public libraries persons who are offensively unclean or suffering from infectious or contagious diseases. Application of the byelaw is at the discretion of library officers and they, I believe, in exercising their power, act reasonably and with justification in the interests of all the users of the library.

§ Mr. Hannam
To ask the Minister for the Arts what representations he has received from disability organisations regarding the model byelaws for library authorities issued by his office.

§ Mr. Luce
Within the last two years the only representation I have received has been from the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation about the public libraries' discretion to admit powered wheelchairs and library users with infectious or contagious diseases.

§ Mr. Hannam
To ask the Minister for the Arts when he proposes to revise the model byelaws issued to library authorities.
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§ Mr. Luce
I shall consider the need for a revision of the model byelaws after secondary legislation arising from the Local Government and Housing Bill 1989 is complete.

§ Mr. Hannam
To ask the Minister for the Arts whether the model byelaws issued by his Department for use by library authorities permit libraries to refuse admission to disabled people using powered wheelchairs; and if he will make a statement.

§ Mr. Luce
Model byelaws allow local authorities, in framing their own byelaws, to regulate the use of their facilities and the conduct of persons in premises where these facilities are provided.
Model byelaw 5 specifies that the consent of a library officer is required before a wheeled vehicle, other than an invalid chair, can be brought into a library. The model byelaw allows library authorities to limit the exception to hand-propelled invalid chairs. I believe that, where library authorities have chosen to give the library officers the power to exclude powered wheelchairs, this is done reasonably and with due consideration to the circumstances that prevail in the library at that time.