§ Mr. Stephen TwiggTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment when he proposes to consult further on provisions in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. [54814]
§ Ms HodgeThe National Disability Council and the Government have today launched a joint consultation exercise on the duties under Part III of the Act to be implemented in October 1999. The duties will require service providers to make reasonable adjustments to enable disabled people to make use of their goods, facilities and services. The Council is consulting on its draft proposals for a Code of Practice and the Government on proposals for supporting regulations and draft regulatory impact assessment (an estimate of the costs and benefits of the new provisions).
The Government are also consulting on a draft regulatory impact assessment and a draft Code of Practice concerned with the duties on trade organisations under Part II of the Act to make reasonable adjustments for their disabled members and applicants for membership. These duties will also be implemented in October 1999.
Both consultations will end on 13 November 1998.
Some of the documents in the consultation packages bear the name of my predecessor. We have decided not to reprint these documents as this would cut into the time available for consultation and entail an additional call on public funds.
Copies of both consultation packages will be placed in the Libraries.