Rights bolstered by new bill says Eagle

By Paul Carter

The new equality bill will strengthen rather than remove existing protections for disabled people, the government has said.

Maria Eagle (pictured), deputy minister for women and equality, told Disability Now that the government had “no intention” of removing rights achieved by disabled people, despite the replacement of the Disability Equality Duty with a new single Equality Duty.

She said: “Can I make it very clear that nothing in this legislation will water down what is already there. There is no intention to do that and there is no way in which will be happening, so I can reassure your readers in that respect.”

The new bill, which brings together nine pieces of discrimination legislation into one place, introduces several new elements relevant to disabled people.

It will place a new duty on landlords and managers of residential properties to make reasonable adjustments to common areas such as hallways and stairs, as well as altering the legal protection that disabled people have following the controversial House of Lords ruling in the Lewisham v Malcolm legal case.

There will also be an amendment to the definition of disability to incorporate those with hidden and fluctuating conditions, while employment tribunals will also receive wider powers.

Carers of disabled people will also be subject to protection under the new bill.

Several disability charities and organisations have reacted initially favourably to the bill, which pending parliamentary approval is due to come in to force from Autumn 2010.

Amanda Ariss, chief executive of The Equality and Diversity Forum said that the major national organisations that the body represents, such as Scope, Mind  and RNIB were “united in welcoming” the announcement of the equality bill.

“The bill should improve ordinary people’s lives and simplify the law for everyone,” she said.

Liz Sayce, chief executive of RADAR, said that the bill would not only benefit disabled people, but also the wider economy.

She said: “Legislating now won’t just benefit disabled people who find the current law full of holes and difficult to use, it will help give UK businesses a stronger competitive advantage and help us emerge stronger from the recession.”

“Excluding the one in five Britons with a long-term health condition or disability from full citizenship makes bad business sense”

However she cautioned that the government needed to do more to “beef up” the framework for enforcement if the bill is to prove effective.

Claire Dawson, a solicitor from law firm Russell Jones and Walker, who specialise in disability employment discrimination, said that although the measures in the bill were “on the whole generally positive”, she retained some real concerns over certain areas, specifically the concept of indirect discrimination, introduced in response the Malcolm case.

She said: “Indirect discrimination is already a well established feature of other equality legislation such as race or sex, but in my view it doesn’t work so well for people with disabilities because disability is such a wide and varied concept.

“The disadvantages which spring from different types of disabilities are hugely different in the impact they have upon the person,” she said.

Theresa May, shadow minister for women, said the Conservatives support moves to bring discrimination to an end, but were concerned that the new bill would prove overly bureaucratic and expensive without solving the problems.

“This bill needs to contain real action to actually clamp down on discrimination, rather than exercises in box-ticking without proper enforcement,” she said.