§ Mr. BoatengTo ask the Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department what research his Department has carried out in the last 10 years into disabled people's access to court buildings and courtrooms in England and Wales; and what plans he has to commission further research. [35539]
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Mr. John M. TaylorThe question concerns a specific operational matter on which the chief executive of the Court Service is best placed to provide an answer and I have accordingly asked the chief executive to reply direct.
Letter from M. D. Huebner to Mr. Paul Boateng, dated 19 July 1995:
The Parliamentary Secretary, Lord Chancellor's Department, has asked me to reply to your Question about research into disabled people's access to court buildings and courtrooms in the last ten years.The Lord Chancellor's Department took over responsibility for the design of court buildings from the Property Services Agency (PSA) in 1992. Prior to 1992, the PSA consulted a number of groups representing disabled court users in developing its standards, which comply with statutory requirements including relevant Building Regulations. These standards have been maintained or improved since responsibility passed to the Lord Chancellor's Department. We plan to hold further consultations with disabled court users groups to discuss how best to meet the requirements of the Disability Bill, currently at committee stage in the House of Lords.