Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, whether her Department has taken recent steps to help ensure that (a) shops and (b) other high street businesses are accessible for disabled people.

The disability provisions in the Equality Act 2010 require providers of services and facilities to the public to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ so that disabled people are not placed at a “substantial disadvantage” compared to non-disabled people. The reasonable adjustment duty is an anticipatory duty because it is owed to disabled people in general. This means that government expects people who provide goods, services, and facilities to members of the public, to anticipate the requirements of disabled customers and the adjustments that may have to be made for them.