Transport written question – answered at on 8 October 2007.
To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what guidance her Department provides to bus operators on the priority to be given to users of pushchairs and wheelchairs when there is insufficient room in a vehicle to carry both.
Powers granted to Government under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 enabled the Department for Transport to make regulations allowing wheelchair users to access new buses and travel in safety and in reasonable comfort. No such powers were granted in respect of people using pushchairs.
The Department published guidance in 2003 advising bus staff of their duties with respect to disabled passengers, and more than 150,000 copies of this document have been issued.
More recently, the Department has worked with the Disability Rights Commission (now the Commission for Equality and Human Rights) to produce sector specific guidance for transport operators on avoiding discrimination. The guidance for buses and scheduled coaches provides advice on use of the designated wheelchair space by passengers other than wheelchair users, and this document is available from their website at www.equalityhumanrights.com
While other passengers are at liberty to use the designated wheelchair space when it is not required by a wheelchair user, it should be vacated, if at all possible, when it is required for a wheelchair user to travel.
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