§ Mr. BurstowTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment, pursuant to his answer of 18 November 1997,Official Report, column 164, what assessment his Department has made of the anti-discrimination legislation relating to disabled people in (a) Australia, (b) New Zealand and (c) Canada; and what visits officials from his Department have made to these countries to study the impact of such legislation there. [46405]
§ Mr. Alan HowarthThe Department has not made a comprehensive assessment of the Australian Disability Discrimination Act, or of those parts of the New Zealand Human Rights Act and the Canadian Human Rights Act which cover disability discrimination.
The Disability Rights Task Force, which I chair, is considering how best to secure comprehensive, enforceable civil rights for disabled people within the context of our wider society. A recent discussion paper presented to the Task Force drew heavily on the approach to the definitions of disability and discrimination in other countries, in particular the Australian Disability Discrimination Act which was cited as an example in each part of the paper. This paper also included summaries of the relevant parts of the New Zealand and Canadian Human Rights Act. The paper is available on the Internet on www.disability.gov.uk.
Officials have not visited these countries. The Australian Human Rights and Disability Rights Commissioner recently visited the UK to present a seminar on disability rights in Australia which was attended by officials and by several members of the Task Force. I myself met the Commissioner who also met senior officials working on disability policy.