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The Queen’s Speech, brought forward several new pieces of legislation that will affect disabled people. The welfare reform bill will introduce far more stringent conditionality for those in receipt of benefits. All but those with very severe impairments and mothers with very young children will be expected to seek work. A health bill will outline responsibilities for both staff and patients (it is hoped that patients with learning difficulties may, as a result, be more likely to receive equal treatment) and disabled children will be affected by the measures outlined in the children, skills and learning bill.

The long awaited equality bill will also be brought forward in parliament next year. The bill is set to streamline the nine main pieces of equality legislation preceding it, covering all diversity strands, into just one piece of legislation. Harriet Harman, minister for women and equality, said: “Equality is vital for a modern economy, so that nobody is excluded and it can draw on the widest possible pool of talent, with everybody contributing. That’s why we will bring forward our tough new equality bill to make Britain fairer.”

The draft bill was withdrawn last year after a storm of protests from disability groups, who felt that it weakened the legislation currently in place. Now the draft legislation has been brought back. Vera Baird, the solicitor general, said the new bill would strengthen the law against discrimination. She added that the new “public sector duty’ will embrace all strands and stressed that there would be “no weakening of any individual strand. The point is to level up, not level down.”


The public sector duty on employers to consider how their services affect a wide range of people, however, will not be transferred across to the private sector except when it provides public services through procurement. The equality bill will simplify the definition of disability so that people are clearer on whether they are protected, simplify the definition of discrimination and ban direct discrimination in the supply of goods and services. There are, currently, two different thresholds for “reasonable adjustment”. The new bill proposes making just one and it will apply, equally, in employment and non-employment situations. The decisions of employment tribunals will be no longer just individual ones on isolated cases. Tribunals willl be able to make decisions which benefit everybody in the workplace and prevent similar types of discrimination happening again.

Maria Eagle, the minister, said that the government had a “fine record” in outlawing disability discrimination, but added that the government recognised that “there is further to go for both lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people and disabled people. The public sector must design out discrimination.”

Dan Scorer, the parliamentary manager from the Royal National Institute of the Blind, commented: “We have welcomed several of the government’s responses to the equality bill, however, the government must conduct an urgent review of access to justice for blind and partially sighted people. We remain concerned over disability-related discrimination that has led to unfair treatment and wish to see greater enforcement of the law.”

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has welcomed the equality bill. The EHRC believes that the one-stop public sector duty will reap benefits although it believes that public sector inspectorates should have to monitor how well they are complying with equality legislation.

Trevor Phillips, chair of the Commission said: "Britain needs an approach to equality which is simple and easy to understand, that connects to the public and business in a more positive way and helps ordinary people build a better life for themselves. The new bill should do this by replacing decades of equality law that has built up in a piecemeal and sometimes contradictory fashion."

But the commission warned that protection from discrimination, as provided by the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA), has been weakened due to the House of Lords judgment in Malcolm v Lewisham. The Lords found in June that the London Borough of Lewisham did not discriminate when it evicted a man with schizophrenia for subletting his council house, because the borough would have treated any other tenant in the same way. The man said he had only sublet the flat because he stopped taking his medication. The Commission believes the bill should remedy the impact of the Malcolm judgement to ensure that disability protection is restored to 'pre Malcolm' levels. The Commission also believes the bill should provide greater protection for carers and others who might experience discrimination by association on grounds of age or disability. Disability Now asked ministers to clarify their position on those two points. On the Malcolm judgement, the ministers said that they were awaiting the conclusion of consultation, and on discrimination by association that they would comply with a recent European court decision on the matter.

Steve Ford, CEO of the Parkinson's Disease Society, commenting on the welfare reform bill, said:

"Nearly half of people of working age with Parkinson's are on incapacity benefits.

"Parkinson's disease is a complex and fluctuating condition, with the potential for someone affected to appear healthy one minute, but to be incapacitated the next.

"We are concerned that the new Work Capability Assessments have the potential to deem someone with Parkinson's capable of seeking work when they are not, and being forced to go through work-seeking activities under threat of sanctions when they are not well enough.

"It is vital that work capability assessors have had training on complex disorders like Parkinson's so no-one is unfairly accused of being a benefits cheat."

TreeHouse, the charity that works with children with autism, welcomed the new education bill, but said that it hoped that “focus in the bill on improving behaviour and attendance will take into account the over-representation of children with special education needs being excluded and bullied.”