People with Disabilities Standing for Elected Office

Baroness Jolly Excerpts

Monday 22nd March 2021 Lords Chamber

Moved by

[Baroness Jolly]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what support they intend to provide to assist people with disabilities with the additional financial costs associated with standing for elected office.

[The Minister of State, Cabinet Office (Lord True) (Con)]

My Lords, it is the Government’s ambition to see more disabled people in public office. The Government have been clear that the responsibility for supporting disabled candidates sits with political parties and that the EnAble Fund was an interim measure to give parties time to put their own support in place. Ministers wrote to the main parties twice in 2019 to ask them how they intend to support their candidates on a long-term basis.

[Baroness Jolly (LD) [V]]

My Lords, I am grateful to the Minister for his response. I am sure he would agree that it is important that people with a disability are represented in Parliament. Can he tell the House how many MP’s have a disability, and, in the last election where financial support was given to candidates with a disability, how many candidates were supported?

[Lord True (Con)]

My Lords, I do not have all those specific figures. In relation to the EnAble Fund, 41 applicants were awarded funding and 19 were elected. Some 33 disabled candidates for the 2019 local elections received financial support through the fund, and of these 15 were elected. I will write to the noble Baroness on her other question.