Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has taken steps to record the number of access refusals to people accompanied by (a) guide and (b) assistant dogs from (i) businesses and (ii) services.

I am replying to this parliamentary question as I have responsibility for the Disability Unit which has overall policy responsibility for assistance dogs.

The Disability Unit has not taken steps to record the number of access refusals of assistance dogs in businesses and services.

Assistance dog charities produce some figures on numbers of access refusals although these have not been independently verified.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) also provided written evidence to the Women and Equalities Select Committee in May 2024, which included data on the number of reports received by the EHRC and the Equality Advisory and Support Service related to assistance dogs.

It’s important to note that data is collected from individuals reporting incidents, therefore these figures may not accurately represent the real number of incidents.