The disability equality duty to publish a disability equality scheme

ps/06/06
09 February 2006
MPA briefing paper

Author: Alan Johnson, Head of Human Resources, MPA

This briefing paper has been prepared to inform members and staff. It is not a committee report and no decisions are required.

Background

1. The Disability Rights Commission (DRC) has produced a Code of Practice on the disability equality duty for the public sector. This new duty was introduced in the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 and will come into force in December 2006.

2. The Authority’s disability equality scheme will need to include:

• involving disabled people
• impact assessments
• an action plan
• gathering and using information
• implementing the scheme
• annual reporting of the scheme
• publishing the scheme

Key messages

3. As with other equality schemes, the duty requires that every public authority shall have due regard to the need to:

• promote equality of opportunity between disabled persons and other persons
• eliminate discrimination that is unlawful under the Act
• eliminate harassment of disabled persons that is related to their disabilities
• promote positive attitudes towards disabled persons
• encourage participation by disabled persons in public life
• take steps to take account of disabled persons’ disabilities, even where that involves treating disabled persons more favourably than other persons.

Key issues

4. The Metropolitan Police Authority (MPA) is one of the public authorities specifically identified in the Code of Practice and has a role both in ensuring that it meets its obligations, but that the Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) is also held to account in this respect.

5. The general duty requires public authorities to give due regard to promoting equality of opportunity between disabled persons and other persons. This means the MPA and MPS will have to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination and promote equal opportunities for disabled people; to consider the elimination of harassment of disabled people; to promote positive attitudes and the need to encourage the participation of disabled people in public life.

6. The main element of this will be the requirement to produce a Disability Equality Scheme. In the process of producing this the MPA and MPS must:

• involve disabled people in producing the scheme and developing the action plan.
• identify how they will gather and analyse evidence to inform their actions and track progress.
• set out how they will assess the impact of their existing and proposed activities on disabled people.
• produce an action plan for the next three years.
• report on their progress every year and review and make appropriate revisions to this scheme at least every three years.

7. The MPA must be able to demonstrate that it has taken the actions it has committed it to, and achieved appropriate outcomes. It must also ensure the MPS meets its obligations under the scheme. The Disability Rights Commission will have the power to issue compliance notices where it is satisfied that a public authority has failed to comply with its specific duties under the Regulations.

8. The definition of disabled persons in the Act is a broad term and covers people with a wide variety of disabilities. The duty requires due regard to be given to all disabled persons when considering the impact of decisions and functions. In addition, cognisance will need to be taken of people who meet the Act’s definition of disabled persons, whether or not they themselves might consider themselves to be disabled, e.g. mental health impairments, learning disabilities, or medical conditions such as cancer.

9. These factors will be very important when the MPA or MPS is communicating with people or seeking the views of people to ensure this includes disabled people. He MPA and MPS will have to assess how well they serve disabled people and plan how to improve the authority’s performance for disabled people. For the purposes of the MPA, the Act prohibits discrimination against disabled people in relation to employment, the provision of goods, facilities and services or the exercise of the Authority’s public functions.

10. The general duty also requires public authorities to have due regard to the need to encourage participation by disabled people in public life.

11. The general duty also requires public authorities not only to have due regard to disability equality when making decisions about the future but also to take action to tackle the consequences of decisions in the past which failed to give due regard to disability equality.

12. At the time of publication of the Code, the Equality Bill is passing through Parliament. The Bill, once passed, will create a Commission for Equality and Human Rights (CEHR). The CEHR will replace the Disability Rights Commission, as well as the other statutory equality commissions, and assume the powers and functions of the Commission, including the ability to make a claim for judicial review in relation to the general duty.

Additional information

13. Recent research evidence suggests that current disability activities, policies and budgets are concentrated in Human Resources and Property Services departments with much less evidence of action plans and standards being set to ensure accessibility of services in other areas. This will be a critical role for the Authority in ensuring the MPS meets its obligations, particularly as the same research found that:

• 36% of organisations or less set disability goals in areas outside human resources and property services.
• only 26% of organisations use the results of consultation with disabled employees to help set disability goals and policies.
• only 29% of organisations use the results of consultation with disabled customers to help set disability goals and policies.

14. Overall, the resulting picture is one of organisations investing significantly less in disability, compared to race or gender. This pattern even holds true for those organisations that are outstanding in their commitment to self-improvement across all three diversity strands.

Background document

15. The Disability Rights Commission duty to promote the disability equality duty (statutory Code of Practice)

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