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Annual Report 2003-2004Foreword by the Secretary of State for Transport A: The Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee B: Activities and achievements in 2003-2004 and future plans C: Work Programme for 2004-2005 D: More information and feedback E: Our Members The Annual Report 2003-2004 has also been made available in Adobe Acrobat and MS Word formats for downloading.
Foreword by the Secretary of State for TransportEffective transport is necessary to the quality of all our lives. For people living with disabilities it is vital to their independence and employment. As both a constituency Member of Parliament and as a Secretary of State I know just how important inclusive policies, accessible facilities, appropriate information and affordable and integrated transport services are to the disabled people I meet and represent. This is why it is so important for everybody involved in planning and providing transport to recognise and provide for these needs. Disabled people require and deserve the same opportunities to travel as everyone else. I continue to value the advice that the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee gives; whether it is advice to the Government that sets the policy framework, the transport providers who deliver it, or the regulators and local authorities that are accountable for its operation. DPTAC helps us all to understand disabled people's needs, ensure that we are well placed to meet them, and point out where we can and should do better. This annual report shows the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee going from strength to strength. I would like to thank the Committee for its dedication and professionalism, and I look forward to seeing the fruits of the further initiatives that it has outlined in this report. As we develop our Disability Discrimination Bill to realise our manifesto commitments to people with disabilities, DPTAC's help will be crucial.Alistair Darling MP Chair's IntroductionDPTAC's commitment to unlocking transport opportunities and unblocking the built environment for disabled people remained as strong as ever, as DPTAC came of age in this, our eighteenth year. We have issued important guidance on both transport and the built environment. June 2003 saw the publication of our much-awaited Inclusive Projects, detailed guidance to those commissioning transport systems, buildings and other facilities on how to take account of disabled people's needs. The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment warmly welcomed the initiative. We followed this with advice to drivers and fleet operators to ensure an easier minicab ride for disabled people. Launched in February, this is already in its second printing; such has been the demand from the industry.We applaud its keenness to train its drivers. We also launched Future Inclusive, a groundbreaking award for university students and teachers throughout the UK who successfully apply the principles of inclusive design. DPTAC has featured in the work of three parliamentary inquiries this year. We vigorously made the case for disabled people's access needs, both in person and in print, to the House of Commons Transport Committee when it considered the issue. When the Joint Scrutiny Committee on the Disability Discrimination Bill sought our advice, we focussed on the transport provisions. These included long-awaited end-dates for a fully accessible rail fleet, and changes to the Blue Badge Scheme. We stressed how vital it is for the Government to lift the exemption that transport services currently enjoy from the general duties on service providers in the Disability Discrimination Act. The Transport Committee also paid tribute to our important role when it examined The Regulation of Taxis and Private Hire Vehicle Services in the UK. We also took the opportunity to offer fresh thoughts on other matters in the Bill, such as the definition of disability. Much of our work takes place quietly, behind the scenes, and I welcome this opportunity to lift the curtain a little. On average we respond to three consultations a month from government departments, agencies and others. You can find the most important of these on our website (www.dptac.gov.uk). It is also in no small part thanks to DPTAC that a raft of government policy documents address the needs of disabled people as well as they do. These include the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister's revised Building Regulations Part M and Planning and Access Good Practice Guide, the Welsh Assembly Government's revised Sustainable Development Scheme and a host of Department for Transport publications. Other work out of the public eye has included considering almost fifty applications for exemption from rail vehicle accessibility regulations. Last year the Secretary of State discussed our work with us at length, and took the opportunity to seek our advice on how best to prepare local councils for upcoming Disability Discrimination Act deadlines, as well as our priorities for the review of the Ten Year Plan. We drew his attention to the need for:
In the next twelve months we will continue to champion the needs of disabled people. The Draft Disability Discrimination Bill provides a focus for many of our activities. We also have a major review of our guidance on large passenger ships and infrastructure in hand, while in aviation we are developing a specification for an on-board wheelchair, as well as one on making aircraft toilets more accessible. The 2004-05 Work Programme in this report contains further details of this and other work. We also plan to put our constructive relationship with the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, our second sponsor department, on a longer-term and clearer footing. This will set out both our accountability and the resources we need to fulfil our function. This work includes updating our Access Directory on guidance, legislation and standards on access for disabled people. It also includes responding to many consultations. Ten of those that we were asked to respond to in 2003 came from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister. The dedication of our unpaid Members remains critical to this work. We welcomed new Members, of whom I was one. We benefited yet again from the support of colleagues in the national administrations of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales; our sponsors in the Department for Transport's Mobility and Inclusion Unit; the industries and regulatory authorities in the fields of transport and the built environment; and a hardworking, efficient Secretariat. We continue to work effectively with other advisory bodies such as the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland, where we have observer status on one another's Main Committees; the Commission for Integrated Transport on which Jane Wilmot and I have served; and the Disability Rights Commission, with which we have agreed a concordat to help us avoid duplication and extend cooperation. In a year that will see a new Disability Discrimination Bill introduced, prospective end-dates for rail vehicle accessibility announced, and a revised framework for planning decisions take shape, we look forward to the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. Neil Betteridge |
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