Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement on access to education for disabled people.

The Withdrawal Agreement Act protects the existing rights to equal treatment and non-discrimination for all EU citizens residing in the UK, UK nationals residing in the EU, and their family members. They have broadly the same entitlements to study and access public services and benefits as they did before withdrawal from the EU, where these entitlements derived from UK membership of the EU.

The government carried out a full Equality Impact Assessment on the Withdrawal Agreement Act and concluded that it is not envisaged that any equality issues will arise due to provisions contained within it. The Equality Impact Assessment can be found here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/841245/EU_Withdrawal_Agreement_Bill_Impact_Assessment.pdf.

Furthermore, the explanatory notes on the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement Act contain a declaration from my right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and Minister for the Cabinet Office, that under section 19(1)(a) of the Human Rights Act 1998, the provisions of the Act are compatible with the European Convention on Human Rights. The full explanatory notes are published on gov.uk here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/eu-future-relationship-bill.