Disability Discrimination Act (Hansard, 19 January 1998)

§ Mr. Burstow
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will legislate to abolish the threshold exempting employees from the employment provision of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. [23765]

§ Mr. Alan Howarth
I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave him on the review of the exemption provisions on 9 December 1997,Official Report, column 519. The threshold cannot be abolished by regulation, but could be lowered to two. We will be considering whether to lower it and, if so, to what level following the outcome of our consultations and review.
The Government have no plans for primary legislation to abolish the threshold. We will await the recommendations of the Disability Task Force before considering what form of primary legislation may be necessary to secure comprehensive, enforceable civil rights for disabled people.

§ Mr. Burstow
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment if he will list the regulation-making process of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 that the Government(a) are currently using and (b) have plans to use and to improve the effectiveness of the Act. [23617]

§ Mr. Alan Howarth
Regulations have been already been made in exercise of the following powers of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA)sections 3(9), 5(6) and (7), 6(8)(a), (c) to (g) and (10), 12(3), 8(6) and (7), 16(3), 19(5)(c), 20(7) and (8), 24(5), 50(8), 54(6), 52(8), 56(2) and (4), 60(6), 62(2), 67, 68(1) and 70(3) and paragraphs 1(2), 2(4), 3(2) and (3), 4(2)(a) and 5(a) of Schedule 1, 3(a) and (b) and 4 of Schedule 4, and 4(4) and 7 of Schedule 5.
Section 30(3) of Part IV of the DDA amends the Further and Higher Education Act 1992 and regulations have been made under sections 5 (7A) and (7B) and 89 (4) of that Act. Regulations have been made under sections 30 (7) and (8) of Part IV of the DDA. Those sections have been repealed but consolidated into section 528 of the Education Act 1996.
Regulations have been made under sections 30 and 32 of the Industrial Tribunals Act 1996. Section 63(2) of the DDA has been replaced by section 32 (2) of that Act.
A regulation would be needed under section 7(2) if, following the current review of the threshold exempting small employers from the employment provisions in Part II of the Act, it is decided to lower the threshold.
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Regulations are expected to be needed under the powers in section 15 when it is decided to implement the duty on trade organisations to make reasonable adjustments. Proposals for regulations would be subject to consultation.
A number of regulations are expected to be needed to help clarify the operation of the remaining rights of access to goods and services under Part III of the Disability Discrimination Act. Proposals for regulations will be subject to consultation in due course.
The Government will be using their powers under Part V of the DDA to require that in future buses, coaches and trains and taxis are fully accessible to disabled people including those who need to travel in their wheelchair. The first stage of the consultation on taxis was completed at the end of November 1997. Consultation on the proposals for buses and coaches is now under way and will be followed by consultation on the draft regulations for rail vehicles.