Women and Equalities Committee House of Commons London SW1A OAA Tel 020 7219 6123 Email womeqcom@parliament.ukWebsite www.parliament.uk

From the Chair

Justin Tomlinson MP

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Disabled People Department for Work and Pensions

19 May 2016

The Equality Act 2010: the Impact on Disabled People report

The Women and Equalities Committee followed the Equality Act 2010 and Disability Committee's inquiry with great interest. As you will be aware their report was published almost two months ago. We have agreed to monitor progress on their recommendations, since they were an ad hoe Committee and have now disbanded.

We have gone through the report in detail and would like to draw your attention to the

following recommendations which we believe could be implemented without delay.

Recommendation no 29 "The reasons offered by the Government for failing to bring section 165 of the Equality Act 2010 into force 20 years after its enactment are entirely unconvincing. Ministers should be considering the burden on disabled people trying to take taxis, not the burden on taxi owners or drivers. Section 165 and the remaining provisions of Part 12 of the Act should be brought into force forthwith."

We note that the relevant taxi provisions have been on the statute book for 20 years, The Government announced a few hours before the Lords Committee published its report that it intended to commence the provisions "this year". We believe this should be implemented

sooner, as the provisions could be brought in very quickly through a Commencement Order. I have copied in the Parliamentary Under Secretary ofState for Transport.

Recommendation nos 5 and 6 "The Cabinet's Social Justice Committee, whose terms ofreference are "To consider issues relating to poverty, equality and social justice", has 16 members, but the Minister for Disabled People is not one of them. He should be made a member."

"The Social Justice Committee should ensure that government departments do not take any major initiatives which will or may affect disabled people without first obtaining the Committee's agreement."

While it is not for us to determine who should sit on the Prime Minister's Cabinet

Committees, this does seem an obvious omission, and a change that could be made quickly

and simply. Recommendation no 9

"We recommend that, from 1 April 2017, the Equality and Human Rights Commission use its powers under Schedule 1 to the Equality Act 2006 to re-establish its Disability

Committee as a decision making body, in a way that as closely as possible mirrors the current statutory functions and powers of the Disability Committee. We welcome the fact

that the EHRC continues to provide dedicated staff support for the Committee, in the face of staffing reductions, and recommend that it ring-fence specific resources for the

Committee."

As the Lords Committee set out, the EHRC has the power to implement this

recommendation without Government action. I am therefore writing separately to their

new Chair David Isaac on this matter.

We would be very grateful if you could respond on each of these points. We would also be very grateful if you could keep us informed if there is likely to be a delay to the

Government's response to this important report.

Yours sincerely

'

Arw Rt Hon Maria Miller MP

Chair, Women and Equalities Committee

Cc AndrewJones MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary ofState for Transport