Equality Act 2010: Wheelchair Users

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Tuesday 17th March 2015 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Kramer]

My Lords, as I say, discussions are continuing but the news that the noble Baroness shares is disturbing. The issue that the Government are attempting to deal with is that there is some lack of clarity within Section 165 and there are potential questions, therefore, around enforceability. The question is whether this issue should be dealt with better in the possible legislation that would follow the Government’s response to the Law Commission report on taxi reform more generally.

[Baroness Brinton (LD)]

My Lords, charging is not the only problem that wheelchair users face with taxis. Are the Government considering whether there should be a requirement for any taxi that claims it is wheelchair-friendly to have just one ramp, because many have two ramps, which are inaccessible to people in electric wheelchairs?

Railways: East Anglia Network

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Thursday 10th October 2013 Grand Committee

[Baroness Brinton (LD)]

My Lords, I, too, congratulate my noble friend Lady Scott of Needham Market on securing this debate, and the noble Baroness, Lady Kramer, on her appointment as Minister. It has been fascinating listening to noble Lords who are much more expert on the complex technical issues of the rail network than I am or will ever be. However, there is one area in which I have become more experienced than I might have wished over the past few years, and that is disability access to trains and stations, where more investment in the rail network is essential. But it is not just about money; it is also about attitude at the top of the train operating companies. I hope that your Lordships will allow me to stretch the scope of the Question for Short Debate today to include the train operating companies that cover the east of England region, despite the earlier comments of my noble friend Lady Scott, not least because my experience is over the whole of the east of England and I think that some points bear comparison.

I shall start by saying that the staff of whichever train operating company I have had to ask for assistance have been unfailingly helpful. Sadly, the services offered are somewhat mixed. Starting with wheelchair access, the east of England train operating companies all set out their offer on their websites and are proud to say that most of their larger stations are step-free and have barriers suitable for a wheelchair to go through, but that is only as good as the lifts at the station. Intermittent faults on a lift are an irritant to someone with a stick and a case, but to someone with a wheelchair, that station becomes a no-go zone. At Watford Junction, a lift went out of service 10 days ago and we were told at the time that it would be mended within three days. It is still out of service. We have been told that someone has written off for a part, but we have no idea when service will resume. The alternative route to that platform, which is the main west coast line down to London, means that you have to come out of the station, go all the way round it and under a tunnel, climb up a steep hill into the car park, and then get a member of staff to unlock the gate for you in order to access the platform.

Then there is the vexed issue of ramps on to trains. Disabled passengers travelling home in the evening can usually find support at the London terminus, but people tell me that they have occasionally arrived at their destination and there is no staff member to meet them, certainly not to put up a ramp. A staff member pointed out to me that it was helpful that I lived at a main station with 24-hour staff. What people do when staff are there for only part of the day or, worse, at unmanned stations, is a real issue. At another station that I have had occasion to use, if you are in a wheelchair you have to wait until the train has left the station to be escorted down a ramp, across the rail track and up the ramp on the other side. That is clearly not safe in this day and age.

Not all disabled people are in wheelchairs. I tend not to use a wheelchair on trains unless I have to. Many disabled people rely on sticks and crutches. The modern trend for beautiful forecourts—King’s Cross, Watford Junction and, just out of the region, Birmingham New Street—rightly addresses the issue of flat surfaces and wide, automatic doors. However, the amazing new hall at King’s Cross, which I use frequently, has positioned the disabled priority seats for waiting in a place where you cannot see the departure boards. The seats are right underneath them, so you have to get up and move to find out the platform your train will arrive at. They have not thought about the walking disabled and how they will get to and from the station. The taxi drop-off at King’s Cross is great, but if you want to get a taxi once you have come off a train at King’s Cross, you have to stand and queue with everyone else. I have done that for up to 15 minutes.

The recently opened forecourt at Watford Junction had neither a disabled drop-off point nor a pick-up space near the station. The new provision removed the disabled spaces beside the forecourt and put them on the other side of the bus station. When I first inquired about that, I was told that all disabled people use wheelchairs, and that wheelchairs and access do not matter as long as there is a path. Let me tell you that after four months they now have a disabled drop-off and pick-up point, but they had real problems in understanding that people with blue badges carry the badges with them, so people coming to pick them up do not have the badge. When they are accosted, they have to say—my husband is expert at this—“My wife will be along in a minute and will show you her badge then”. Good practice in this area includes Euston and St Pancras, where they have separate queues and priority access for disabled passengers, and it is well signposted.

I will move briefly to access on trains. The old rolling stock seats are really difficult for people who have difficulty getting up and down. If you use a mobility buggy rather than a wheelchair, some companies ask you to move into a seat. I would be in real trouble if that happened because I find getting up and down difficult. All companies now have priority seat arrangements. However, they rely on the public understanding the little sign behind the seat that says, “Please give up this seat if available”. More often than not, I have to ask people to give up their seat. Southern Trains and London Midland labels are easily accessible. Those on Greater Anglia and First Capital Connect services are a disgrace. In the rush hour, it can be even harder. The commuting public do not want to look at you if you need a seat. I have been reduced to tears on two occasions. Staff were brilliant at helping, but, again, often on a crowded train they are not there. The TOCs feel better because they offer priority cards, but they need to do more than publicise where the seats are and they should have advertisements to encourage people to give up their seats if they are needed. The @nogobritain campaign, run by Channel 4, has been brilliant at exposing these problems.

The report card on access is very mixed. Where is the accountability? Can government departments help to join up the thinking to get the train operating companies to provide a good service? We need more trains that are a smooth ride, not a stop-start service held at a red signal, for people with disabilities.

Disabled Persons’ Parking Badges Bill

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Friday 30th November 2012 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Brinton]

My Lords, I, too, declare an interest as the holder of a disabled person’s parking badge. This Bill is an essential tool for the prevention and reduction of fraud and is long overdue, for many of the reasons that have been outlined by the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, and my noble friend Lady Thomas of Winchester.

Picking up on the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Dubs, on the abuse of space—which I have mentioned before in your Lordships’ House—there is a cultural issue in this country where people do not think that it is particularly upsetting, if there are lots of disabled spaces, to just nip into one briefly for a while. Compare that with France, where the major supermarket chain Leclerc has a little sign below each blue badge that says, “You take my space, you can take my handicap”. There is very little abuse of the system in France, and it is that cultural change that forces people to think about what they are doing that we need to get to in this country. In the mean time, we need to make sure that fraud and abuse of the system are reduced.

I, too, have looked at the web guide. In the main, I found it extremely helpful but I wondered if I needed to print out some of the 20-odd pages, particularly those on when you can and cannot use your badge on a yellow line. Having looked at it, I certainly could not memorise all the different strands. Perhaps there is a way of simplifying that, perhaps into a handy little pocket thing that might go out with the new badge when it is reissued that would give users and their carers an easy aide-memoire.

I note that the Bill does not tackle the highly contentious issue of eligibility for a badge, although I suspect that eligibility is the area that many people with disabilities are more concerned about.

Most of this short Bill is very sensible, and helpful to local authorities and the police in terms of setting out formal processes for the cancelling of badges when they are no longer held by the person to whom they were issued, and to increase the number of people able to inspect badges.

I am sure that it is right and helpful to permit authorised enforcement officers in plain clothes to inspect badges. It is also right for them to be able to confiscate a badge which they believe to have been cancelled, due for return, or because it is a fake. However, I have slight concerns about the wording in Clause 3(4)(a), which could be interpreted as a very sweeping statement. It says,

“should have been returned to the issuing authority in compliance with regulations under subsection (6) of that section or a notice under subsection (7A)(b) of that section”.

My noble friend Lady Thomas has helpfully clarified that these powers are limited and do not give an enforcement officer the right to confiscate a badge should they believe the holder is no longer displaying a level of disability that would entitle them to a badge. If so, I am reassured. It would be very worrying if untrained officers, who know nothing about the wide range of disabilities and how they manifest themselves, took it upon themselves to seize a badge. For example, someone with an invisible heart condition might appear well, might even be able to walk to the shop that they are trying to get to, and to all intents and purposes look fit and healthy to an untrained eye.

This raises the more general issue about the training of enforcement officers. Will my noble friend Lady Thomas or the Minister tell the House what training there is for those police or enforcement officers who have the power to confiscate? Do they have training to understand and recognise disabilities and how to work with people with disabilities? For example, what skills are they given in communicating with people with disabilities such as severe hearing loss, who may be unable to discuss the matter easily with an officer? Perhaps this is an area that local authorities could look at with their staff and enforcement officers.

I have a minor concern about Clause 5, which concerns appeals. I absolutely agree that it should not be necessary for a badge holder to appeal to the Secretary of State should they be refused a badge, but I am worried that it appears there is no recourse to appeal against the decision of a local authority. Can the Minister confirm that this is the case? If so, is it right or fair that there is no appeal? For example, can a sub-committee be set up in a local authority to review that initial decision? That seems to be against natural justice.

Finally, I am pleased with the proposals for the Secretary of State to be responsible for issuing blue badges to members of the Armed Forces and persons employed in their support who are resident overseas. This is eminently sensible, given the movement of service personnel and the European nature of the current badge.

I thank my noble friend Lady Thomas of Winchester for bringing forward this Bill to your Lordships’ House. With those very minor concerns, I absolutely support the Bill.

Disabled People: Blue Badge Scheme

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Thursday 25th October 2012 Lords Chamber

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, I shall draw the noble Lord’s points to the attention of my honourable friend Mr Norman Baker.

[Baroness Brinton]

My Lords, given the debate that has gone on about the new process, I have just been through it and have found it to be very smooth and very fast. It is extremely helpful and the advice from various medics was useful. The noble Baroness, Lady Gardner, asked about abuse of disabled bays. What can the Government do to encourage the reduction of abuse? In France, the supermarket chain, E.Leclerc, has a notice under wheelchair signs that says, “You take my space; you take my handicap”.

[Earl Attlee]

My Lords, I should make it clear that the blue badge scheme has no effect off road on private land. However, supermarkets are bound by the provisions of the Equality Act and need to provide disabled parking bays. I am quite confident that a supermarket will take into consideration that a blue badge is on display and I would imagine that most responsible supermarkets would do their best to avoid abuse of disabled parking spaces because it is a morally bankrupt thing to do.

Visas: Points-based System

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Thursday 10th March 2011 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Brinton]

My Lords, I declare an interest as executive director of the Association of Universities in the East of England and, through that role, as an employee of the University of East Anglia. This country has a proud history of over 800 years of intellectual rigour and academic excellence in its higher education institutions. Even in medieval times, there was a free flow between universities across Europe, with the best academics moving around to teach, research and learn from others elsewhere. The horizons of our universities today are truly international and the breadth of knowledge being shared is quite extraordinary. Many noble Lords in this House have contributed to this global exchange.

This is not just about Cambridge, Oxford and Imperial, proud as we are of their international rankings. Every university I have worked with has groundbreaking research or teaching projects in which they are collaborating with universities overseas or are hosting exceptional researchers to strengthen the UK’s knowledge base and, really importantly, given the Government’s focus on innovation and growth, to provide the innovation that our economy needs to make it grow over the next few years. Our universities are genuinely global businesses, generating about £8 billion of foreign exchange earnings for the UK every year. They have globalised workforces. This country needs the brightest and the best, not least because within the UK we undersupply in several critical areas, for example in mathematics and engineering.

There are structural difficulties with the new points-based system that may prove to be catastrophic to our universities. The closure of tier 1 general means that universities will now have to use tier 2 general to try to recruit academics and researchers from overseas, which will place additional pressure on this category. As an aside, the planned closure of tier 1 post-study work, which is currently under consideration as part of the consultation on the student immigration system, has implications for the recruitment of international graduates of UK universities into research and academic posts on completion of their studies in the UK. This route has been widely used for the recruitment of postdoctoral staff and others into universities. The closure of this route will further restrict the progression and recruitment of highly skilled academics into our universities.

I echo the points made by the noble Lord, Lord Parekh. Further problems relate to the 21,700 annual limit—1,000 for tier 1 exceptional talent visas and 20,700 for tier 2 visas—as it applies only to 2011-12. Draconian as this 20 per cent reduction is, I understand that the limit is likely to be reduced further for 2012-13 to facilitate reductions in net migration, so the future availability of visas will definitely be an ongoing issue. I believe that the creation of the tier 1 exceptional talent route for people in the sciences, academia and arts is a welcome recognition of the arguments put forward by Universities UK and other organisations about the importance of international mobility to higher education and research. However, the arbitrary cap of 1,000 visas a year for this route is very peculiar as talent is rather difficult to quantify and discriminate between on a numerical basis. It is also unclear exactly how exceptional talent will be judged and what steps will be taken to ensure that emerging as well as established talent is recognised. Who will judge? I hope it is not UK Border Agency staff. Their record on understanding even the basics of our higher education system has, as we have heard today, caused real problems in recent years.

There are also practical problems with the UK Border Agency’s belief that visa demands nationally remain relatively steady month by month and that high demands in certain sectors at given times will be balanced out by lower demand in others. This is absolutely not true of the higher education sector, which is inevitably highly cyclical, with the vast majority of posts starting at the beginning of the academic year in the autumn. I cannot see this being balanced out elsewhere.

In addition, the quota now given to universities and research institutes under the points-based system is damagingly tight. For example, under the new quota system the University of Bedfordshire, which has over 1,000 staff, makes a contribution to its local economy of £270 million a year, and is perhaps not the top of most people’s thoughts about an intensive research university, was allocated a quota of two. This was used up in employing two outstanding professors in the first month of the year.

My own employer, the University of East Anglia, and across the Norwich Research Park, is experiencing the negative impact that this is having on key appointments whereby first-rate brains from outside the EU are discouraged from applying or have to be passed over. Appointment strategies have to be reshaped in a manner dictated not by research priorities but by this narrowing of the range and quality available in the UK. The negative effect on scientific progress and academic collaboration is compounded by the squeeze on short-term academic visits. Posts and academic fields affected range across the disciplines, from English literature and Japanese culture at one end of the spectrum to critical scientific areas at the other, including plant science, on which the Norwich Research Park has been the academic place of choice for the world’s foremost specialists.

As a result of this ill thought through visa system, the best academics are likely to have job offers and opportunities available to them in other parts of the world. Will they go elsewhere due to delays in obtaining a visa to come to the UK to take up a post? We rightly worry about the brain drain from the UK, but these proposals will discourage the best academics from coming here and might turn our higher education sector into a backwater instead of being globally competitive.

The proposed structure of the new system might mean that employers suffer delays and uncertainties in the issuing of certificates of sponsorship for visas. I end by quoting from correspondence that I have had with Dr Oren Scherman, the Harrison-Meldola Prize winner for 2009 and an inorganic chemist working in supramolecular polymers, a highly specialised area of research excellence. He highlights how the nuts and bolts of the visa system seem to be designed to fail applicants at every turn, even when their finance is provided by EU funding specifically because they are exceptional overseas researchers. He says:

“The first application for a Certificate of Sponsorship by the University to the UK Border Agency at the Home Office appeared to take longer than usual and then the visa application by the post-doc was denied because apparently the wording on the letter confirming maintenance from the university was incorrect at that time although it had been acceptable for another candidate a few months earlier. We were told that the rules for visas had changed between the University application to the Home Office and the completion of the post-doc’s visa application in India. We then had to go through the process of rewriting the support letter and applying to the Home Office and the candidate applying for his visa, a second time. This points-based system seems very complex and the delays we incurred caused the Post-Doc to wait in India, unpaid, for at least four months, during which time he almost took up the offer of another position in India. I had to persuade him then that we were really keen on employing him in Cambridge although the delays must have suggested otherwise”.

I thank the noble Earl, Lord Clancarty, for instigating this debate. I hope that the Government can review the whole system as a matter of urgency, because it is clearly ludicrous, and for it to be easier to recruit professional footballers from overseas than the professors and researchers that our country so badly needs makes this country a laughing stock.