Disabled People: Hotel Facilities

Baroness Thornton Excerpts

Monday 23rd February 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Thornton (Lab)]

My Lords, it is humbling and a great pleasure to be able to speak this evening. I apologise for not having my name down on the list. A glitch in an otherwise superb and well oiled machine led to me being left off and I apologise to the House for that. This debate has been humbling in many ways but, as one might have expected, it has also been conducted with great humour and passion.

Since October 2004, companies and organisations that provide services to the public are required by the Disability Discrimination Act to ensure that their services are reasonably accessible to disabled people. This was consolidated further by the Equality Act 2010. That was the first time that the law had required businesses to consider whether their buildings were accessible and it has presented a new challenge for many of them. As many noble Lords have said, focusing on the needs of disabled people can also provide an opportunity to gain from a significant consumer market. One of the briefs that I have read states that the “blue pound” is worth about £2 billion a year, so there is a clear business case for hotels and restaurants being accessible to a full range of people with disabilities. However, as we have heard this evening, that is not the case. I wonder whether the Copthorne Hotel would not regard its adaptations as being medicalised; it is clear that it regards them as something for which it can make a business case, as well as it being the right thing to do. In a way, those are the questions that we need to address.

I am sure that, like me, many noble Lords who have taken part in this debate will have looked at the EHRC’s website. The guidelines set out there are extensive. However, if I was a hotel owner, I am not sure that I would know what my legal responsibilities were as opposed to what it would be good for me to do. That is the question that I want to address to the Minister, because it is not clear what exactly hotels need to do. What are the “reasonable” adjustments—it is that weasel word—that need to be made? It is not just about physical accessibility but also about, as many noble Lords have said, the way in which a service is offered.