§ Mrs. DunwoodyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment under the new provisions for house adaptations for people with disabilities, how many people have been denied grants or been given reduced grants to make adaptations to their homes because they do not meet the means test.
§ Mr. KeyThe information requested is not yet available. The impact of the new house renovation grant system is, however, being monitored closely.
§ Mrs. DunwoodyTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment if the Government will introduce legislation to amend the Town and Country Planning Act to make it unlawful to erect or adapt buildings without approved access facilities for disabled people, and to provide for all existing buildings to be adapted in the same way with cash grants available from central Government for the owners of such buildings, with such adaptations subject to checks annually by the disablement advisory service.
§ Mr. KeyThere is already a requirement in the Building Regulations 1985 that reasonable provision must be made to enable disabled people to gain access to new offices and shops, and to the principal entrance storey of new factories, educational buildings covered by the regulations, and other premises to which the public are admitted. Consultation proposals have been issued recently which would have the effect of extending this requirement to all floors of all new non-domestic buildings and to certain alterations and extensions to existing buildings. Research is being carried out into the technical problems involved in extending such a requirement to other alterations and extensions of non-domestic buildings.
Under the adaptations to premises and equipment scheme, administered by the Department of Employment through the disablement advisory service, a grant of up to £6,000 may be awarded to an employer, towards the cost of adapting premises and equipment for an existing disabled employee or a disabled new recruit. Employers are expected to contribute and to undertake to recruit a disabled person with similar needs as a replacement in the event of the original employee leaving. Grants are most commonly provided for adaptations to toilets and improved access to a building. An evaluation of the Department of Employment special schemes was published by my right hon. and learned Friend the Secretary of State for Employment on 2 November 1990 and comments invited by 2 February 1991.