Annual Report 2005-2006

Foreword by the Secretary of State for Transport

Chair's Introduction

A: The Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee
    Background
    Our function
    Our aims
    Our strategy
    Membership
    Our resources

B: Activities and Achievements in 2005-2006 and Future Plans
    Aviation
    Buses, coaches and community transport
    Maritime transport
    Personal mobility and local suthorities
    Rail
    Taxis and private hire vehicles
    Education and training

C: Work Programme for 2005-2006
    The priorities
    Our work programme for 2005-2006
    Pro-active tasks
    Re-active tasks

D: More Information and Feedback
    Tell us what you think

E: Our Members
    Membership as at 01 April 2006

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• Annual Report 2005-2006 (Adobe Acrobat - 432kb)

Foreword by the Secretary of State for Transport

This Government has placed the rights of disabled people at the top of its agenda. A great deal has already been achieved and we have presided over a significant strengthening and enhancement of disabled people's rights. The increasing accessibility of public transport has meant that disabled people are more mobile than ever before and able to access the services, work and leisure opportunities many of us take for granted.

As our statutory consultees, the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee has a vital role in ensuring that these improvements are built upon. It continues to make a real difference to the travel experience of disabled people through its support to me and my fellow Ministers, to central and local government officials and to the transport sector.

I am always impressed at both the range of issues the Committee considers, including training, management, finance and infrastructure; and the professional manner in which its members offer advice on every conceivable mode of transport.

We have a challenging agenda ahead of us, including implementation of the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 and the introduction of the Disability Equality Duty, as well as new European legislation. In all these areas, and many more, I look to the Committee to sustain the consistently high quality of independent advice it has provided to myself and my predecessors.

So enjoy this report. It is an impressive account of a wide-ranging and crucial body.

The Rt Hon Douglas Alexander MP

Chair's Introduction

DPTAC'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.

There are those who might wonder why we still need a Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee. With vehicle accessibility regulations in place for many modes of transport, and European laws to protect disabled travellers' rights in others, as well as a new Disability Discrimination Act covering transport and giving central and local government a disability equality duty, they might say all the advice that is needed must have surely been given (if not taken). The emphasis now, the argument might go, should be on delivery. If there is a need for further advice then a new crossgovernment advisory body is on the horizon in the form of Equality 2025. While we can see the logic of this, as long as our aim 'that disabled people can go where everyone else goes and can do so easily and without extra cost' has not been achieved, there will be a job for us to do, to envision, to advise, and to report.

This year was a highly productive one for DPTAC's members, and marked an important period for disabled people. Building on our past achievements, we have contributed to the development of government policy, and set the groundwork for a number of important publications in the coming year, so much so that this introduction is in no small measure a trailer of coming attractions. More details are in the full report that follows.

We have developed policy statements on concessionary fares, road user charging and Shopmobility schemes, all of which we were preparing to put into the public domain at the end of the period of this report.

DPTAC is working towards making this a country where inclusive design means that the transport needs of disabled people have been built in from the start. To this end we have developed and published primary school materials on inclusive design, and we are now evaluating those materials and building on this success with new materials for the secondary years. In the related area of training we are now setting in hand research on a training framework and generic principles for disability awareness for front line transport staff. Outputs from this project will directly support transport providers to best tailor their systems to respond to the needs of disabled people, by ensuring that training best meets their needs. This is particularly timely with the recent lifting of the exemption from Part 3 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 from land based transport.

We have continued to develop several important guidance documents on small buses, and on wheelchairs and toilets for use in aeroplanes, which we will publish in the coming year. Our main website receives some 9,000 hits each day. We also needed to set in hand new arrangements for updating our well-established Door-to- Door website, which gives disabled people information and advice about travelling using all forms of transport. This followed the demise of our partner Tripscope, the travel information charity for disabled people, which unfortunately ceased trading at the end of the financial year. We have also continued to update our Access Directory site, a useful resource for academics and access professionals on accessibility research and standards.

DPTAC maintains a keen interest in concessionary fares, commenting on government guidance about the free local bus concession for certain hours that came into effect in April 2006. We continue to press for an all-day UK wide scheme.

We have been carrying out research to review how effectively home zone design standards reflect the needs of disabled people and to develop further guidance if necessary. We look forward to reporting on that work next year. During the year we have also contributed to a number of continuing Department for Transport research projects, including travel training, the use of powered wheelchairs and scooters on roads and pavements, and the London exemption, database and eligibility aspects of the Blue Badge parking scheme. The results will be published by the Department's Mobility and Inclusion Unit as projects complete.

We have helped to steer the Department for Transport's research on the effectiveness of the voluntary approach to meeting the transport needs of disabled people in aviation services, and we have competed our own research on the same issue in relation to shipping. This has been published on our website and disseminated through the sector.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency sought DPTAC's guidance on developing and reporting on its Action Plan for the European Union Directive 20003/24/EC Safety requirements for persons with reduced mobility, following our work in developing the related guidance document for vessel operators.

Our members also assisted the former Strategic Rail Authority and its successors in the Department for Transport in the development of the recently published Railways for All Strategy and Access for All Fund and will play an important role in directing the prioritisation and allocation of these funds to improve the accessibility of railway stations and services for disabled people.

We have a duty to advise the Secretary of State on Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations exemption requests, and requests for dispensations from the Code of Practice on Train and Station Services for Disabled Passengers. This helps to ensure that the needs of disabled people are fully taken into account. We have received more requests for exemptions about stations since the abolition of the Strategic Rail Authority. Our members have also advised on rail utilisation strategies and the franchise replacement programme, including Disabled Peoples Protection Policies and schedules of minor works. This work helps ensure that decisions on station and line use are made in the context of disabled people's needs.

As DPTAC Chair I am also an ex officio member of the Commission for Integrated Transport. In this way DPTAC has been raising the profile of accessibility issues in the Commission's work, including in a research study of "Sustainable Transport Choices and the Retail Sector" that includes non-residential parking and is therefore likely to have an impact on Blue Badge holders.

One way in which we have contributed to the development of transport policy has been by responding to national consultations. We have responded to between two and three consultations each month. These have included the Department for Transport's Eddington Transport Review, the implications of the Number 10 report on the life chances of disabled people, and the Scottish Executive's plans for a Public Transport Users' Committee for Scotland. These would have seen the ending of the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland (MACS) in its current form. Following our response, Scottish Ministers decided to retain MACS.

We made detailed comments on several consultations from the Disability Rights Commission, notably the codes on new duties for landlords, private clubs and public authorities; the duty to promote disability equality in both England and Wales and in Scotland, and on transport; as well as suggested changes to the legal definition of disability. These helped to ensure that the codes were comprehensive and fit for purpose.

We also responded to three significant policy proposals from the European Union. These were on regulating the rights of disabled people, one on travelling by air, another on travel by sea or inland waterways, and a third on details of how rail systems can be harmonised across Europe, which has the potential both to raise some and lower other standards for train rolling stock that are cureltly set out in the Rail Vehicle Accessibility Regulations.

Over the year, we also published written evidence to two Transport Select Committee inquiries: on train fares and on delivering transport for London's 2012 Olympic Games. In the latter inquiry, we gave oral evidence alongside the Disability Rights Commission and the London Transport Users Committee. On 16 March, the Committee published its report "Going for Gold: Transport for London's 2012 Olympic Games". 14 out of the Committee's 60 recommendations addressed the transport needs of disabled people, and drew heavily on our evidence.

The dedication of our unpaid Members remains critical to all this work. During the year, Ministers supplemented our team by appointing Judith Jesky and Tomi Jones, for a period of three years to December 2007. All of our existing members continued to serve during the reporting period and since then we have welcomed four new appointments (Nicola McLeish, Marilyn Lister, Wendy Morrell and Dai Powell) and seven reappointments (Pravin Amyn, Jean Dunlop, Roger Hewitt, Grahame Lawson, Carol Thomas, Richard West and myself). I am honoured to have been invited to chair DPTAC for a further three year term of office.

As in past years, we could not have achieved all this without the transport industries and regulatory authorities with whom we work closely on our and their projects, our sponsors in the Department for Transport's Mobility and Inclusion Unit, and an exceptionally dedicated and skilled Secretariat. We are also grateful for the continuing support of colleagues in the national administrations of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales; and other advisory bodies such as the Mobility and Access Committee for Scotland and the Disability Rights Commission, as well as the individuals and groups who have encouraged us.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Ministers and officials who have now left the Department for Transport. Former Parliamentary Under Secretary of State Karen Buck MP was supportive of DPTAC throughout her term of office. Ann Frye, former Head of the Mobility and Inclusion Unit, and Sue Sharp of the Unit left during the year. Both have supported out work over very many years in every way possible. We look forward to working with their replacements.

In the next twelve months, we will continue to champion the transport needs of disabled people. The implementation of the lifting of the exemption from Part 3 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 from land-based transport will be a focus for much of our activity. We will also revise our guidance in the light of our recently published review of our advice on large passenger ships and infrastructure, while in aviation we will publish our specifications for an on-board wheelchair, and for making aircraft toilets more accessible to disabled people. In both these areas, we will press the government to take a view quickly on the lifting of the continuing exemption of sea and air transport from Part 3 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Finally, we have consulted on our strategy for the 2007-10 period.

Neil Betteridge

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