Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make it his policy to support the establishment of accessibility champions in each Department.

Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister for Women and Equalities

We already have a Ministerial Disability Champion in each government department.

At the request of the Prime Minister, the first Ministerial Disability Champions were appointed in summer 2020, to drive the development and delivery of the National Disability Strategy (NDS).

Their role is to:

• ensure disability inclusion is a priority in their department’s work;
• help drive the delivery of the commitments in the National Disability Strategy and the actions in the Disability Action Plan; and
• help deliver the government’s commitment to support disabled people in the UK through creating more opportunities, protecting their rights and ensuring they fully benefit from, and can contribute to, every aspect of our society.

The Ministerial Disability Champions meet regularly throughout the year. The Minister of State for Disabled People, Health and Work, Mims Davies MP, is the chair.

A full list of Ministerial Disability Champions can be found on Gov.UK here.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 23 June 2023 to Question 189783 on Cabinet: Disability, what discussions Ministers in his Department have had with the Cabinet Office on the decision not to implement the National Disability Strategy commitment to lead a multi-year programme to improve the availability, quality, relevance and comparability of Government disability data.

Answered by Tom Pursglove

In January 2022, the High Court declared the National Disability Strategy was unlawful because the UK Disability Survey, which informed it, was held to be a voluntary consultation that failed to comply with the legal requirements on public consultations.

We are disappointed by, and strongly disagree with, the High Court’s finding, and the Secretary of State was granted permission to appeal the Court's declaration. That appeal hearing was heard on 28 June 2023, and we await the decision of the Court.

As the National Disability Strategy was found to be unlawful, we are unable to provide you with the further information you have requested.

We are fully committed to supporting disabled people in the UK through creating more opportunities, protecting their rights, and ensuring they fully benefit from, and can contribute to, every aspect of our society. To support this, we will be providing details of the Government’s recent achievements to improve disabled people’s lives in the forthcoming Disability Action Plan consultation due for publication in the summer.

The Disability Action Plan will go further in areas where we think joint action across departments can make a tangible difference to disabled people’s lives in the immediate term - or where we can make meaningful progress towards a longer-term goal, for example improved disability data and evidence.