HC Deb 15 February 1990 vol 167 c408W
Mr. Kirkwood

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what plans he has to introduce a scheme to allow free access to specially adapted public toilets for those who are disabled and over retirement age.

Mr. Chope

The national key scheme administered by the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation enables disabled people who have a key to obtain free access to specially adapted public toilets.

Mr. Kirkwood

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if he will make additional resources available to local authorities to enable them to construct and convert public toilet provision adapted to the needs of the disabled.

Mr. Chope

The Government make resources available to local authorities through the revenue support grant settlement in support of their expenditure on revenue services generally. These services include the provision of public conveniences, including those adapted to the needs of the disabled. Details of the settlement for 1990–91 were announced on 11 January and full information about the grant entitlement of each area was sent to authorities on 25 January.

The settlement is based on total standard spending by authorities of £32.8 billion; this is the amount which it is appropriate for authorities in aggregate to incur to provide a standard level of service. I have no plans to make additional resources available.

Revenue support grant is unhypothecated. Now that authorities have details of their entitlements, it is for them to decide how much to spend on the construction or conversion of public toilet provision adapted to the needs of the disabled.

Mr. Kirkwood

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment what information he collected on the location of specially adapted public conveniences for the disabled.

Mr. Chope

This information is not collected by my Department. Information of the kind to which the hon. Member refers is collected by the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation, and is made available to disabled people by the association.

Mr. Kirkwood

To ask the Secretary of State for the Environment whether he will consider making a key available free of charge to those disabled people in receipt of mobility or attendance allowance who request it to enable them to gain 24-hour access to the existing public toilets specially adapted for the disabled by local authorities; and what is his estimate of the cost of providing such a key.

Mr. Chope

No. Keys giving access to public toilets specially adapted for the disabled included in the national key scheme are available from the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation at a cost of £2.90 each.