Draft Disabled People's Protection Policies (DPPPs)

prepared during autumn 2002

1. Introduction

1.1 The purpose of the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) is to provide leadership to the railway industry and ensure the industry works together for common goals. One such goal is to improve access for disabled people to railway services.

1.2 The Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) is a statutory body responsible for advising the Government on the transport needs of disabled people.

1.3 The SRA, is required under the Secretary of State's Directions and Guidance to work closely with DPTAC and be guided by its advice on issues relating to disabled passengers using the rail network.

Format of this report

1.4 In April 2002 the SRA published its Guidance on Disabled Persons Protection Policies (Guidance). This set out the criteria the Authority would normally adopt in exercising its function, under the 'Provision of Services for Disabled People' condition of the passenger and station licenses, when approving each operator's Policy.

1.5 This report covers the statement of policies, not the station matrices. DPTAC do not have the detailed knowledge of the individual stations covered by the matrices and have sought to provide advice on the strategic implications arising from the statements of policy. The Rail Passenger Council and Committees are considering the station matrices.

1.6 We include general comments covering the process by which drafts have been produced and comments on their overall quality. The report then provides detailed comments on the response to each section of the Guidance, which for ease of use is repeated.

1.7 We have submitted this overall report to the SRA and operators, together with comments on their own draft. We have published this summary report on our web site at http://www.dptac.gov.uk.

Published: 17 February 2003

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