Public bodies head for sanctions as DRC pursues disability equality duty shirkers

The Disability Rights Commission (DRC) is putting organisations from across the public sector on notice after publishing the names of more than 60 public authorities which have failed to produce a disability equality scheme, despite a deadline of December last year and subsequent warning letters from the Commission.

Local councils, health trusts, colleges, universities, museums, fire departments and Channel 4 Television are among those to whom the Commission wrote to at the beginning of March, but 65 (as of 27 March 2007) still have not provided any evidence that the required scheme is in place.

Sir Bert Massie, chairman of the DRC, said:

“The disability equality duty is a real opportunity to transform disabled people’s experiences of the society we live in. I’m really pleased that the public sector as a whole has done a great job in responding to the requirements of the duty, with more than 96% of organisations producing a scheme. The question is: Why have a small minority failed to do so?”

The naming and shaming exercise follows an audit carried out by Ipsos MORI for the Government’s Office for Disability Issues (ODI) of 1752 organisations in December 2006 to check whether disability equality schemes had been published. The ODI passed on the audit findings to the DRC, which has the responsibility for enforcing the duty. A follow up check by the DRC revealed 66, or 3.7%, still do not have a scheme.

Sir Bert added: “We’ll now be considering issuing compliance notices to offending authorities, which could lead to court action.”