Schedule 10
Equality Bill
7:15 pm
Mark Harper (Shadow Minister, Work & Pensions; Forest of Dean, Conservative)
I hope that this will be a brief debate. I have a few quick questions for the Minister. By raising this issue here, we will not have to discuss it under schedule 15. There is a difference between the provisions on the duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people in the education section and the main section of the Bill. In the main section, the duty to make adjustments has three requirements. The first is that somebody is at a substantial disadvantage, and the second relates to physical features. The difference comes with the third, which is to provide an auxiliary aid. Clause 80 in part 6 simply has a duty to make reasonable adjustments that applies to the responsible body of such a school, without those three parts being explained. Effectively, there is a carry-across of existing legislation, which has no current requirement to deal with auxiliary aids.
The issue has been raised with me by the Disability Charities Consortium. When I investigated the matter, the answer given to me was that the reason for the difference in provisions was that schedule 10 provides for accessibility arrangements for pupils in schools. My question to the Minister is simple: given the need to provide for accessibility arrangements in schools and for schools to have a written accessibility plan under which they discuss with their disabled pupils their needs and requirements, will schools, in making those reasonable adjustments, effectively have to consider providing auxiliary aids, even under the education requirement, as the general duty to make adjustments applies in other arenas? That is the question and my reason for raising it now. If I have not been clear, the Solicitor-General should let me know, and I will try again.