Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of (a) telegraph poles and (b) other infrastructure on inclusive mobility; and what steps she is taking to make streets more accessible.

Accessibility is a priority for this Government. In order to reduce pavement clutter and ensure that footways are accessible to everyone, there are requirements on telecom operators and other operators to share apparatus and to use underground lines where practicable. There are regulations in place to support this and the Cabinet Siting and Pole Siting Code of Practice 2016 also includes guidance on how telegraph poles should be sited to account for health and safety and access concerns.

The Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) requires public authorities to have due regard to certain equality considerations when making decisions on matters of this sort. This is to ensure that they consider how their policies, programmes, and services, including, for example, decisions on the siting of apparatus of this sort, will affect people with different protected characteristics. Public authorities are also required to monitor the impact of their decisions on those with protected characteristics.