Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the Government's timescale is for (a) acknowledging the concluding observations from the UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities and (b) responding to that convention's recommendations.

The Government is committed to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, and to the progressive realisation of the rights for disabled people that it sets out.

We have provided our first report to the UN Committee as requested. We published this report on 6 September 2018. This report and accompanying ministerial letter setting out the UK's progress are available on GOV.UK website:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/disabled-peoples-rights-information-following-the-uks-first-periodic-review

I tabled a Written Statement (HCWS938) on 6 September 2018, providing an update on the UK’s follow-up response to the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities: https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-statement/Commons/2018-09-06/HCWS938

We will be responding to the recommendations in the Concluding Observations during our next periodic review, currently scheduled for 2023. In the meantime, we will be preparing in due course, as recommended by the UN Committee, a progress update on the 2016 inquiry recommendations.