Scott expects disabled paper before recess
NICHOLAS SCOTT, minister for the disabled, yesterday said he hoped to produce a consultation paper on rights for disabled people before the summer recess begins on 21 July, writes Stephen Castle.
The paper, already promised by Mr Scott, will spell out the Government's strategy following its controversial wrecking of a Bill for disabled people earlier this year.
Speaking before a rally of thousands of disabled people in London's Trafalgar Square, Mr Scott told Radio 4: 'I hope very much before the House rises we will have a consultation document. The consultation will then continue during the summer and I would expect to be in a position when the House resumes in the autumn to have some practical workmanlike measures which can help disabled people.'
The campaigners, who delivered a petition to Downing Street after the rally, insisted they would carry on campaigning until their own Bill was on the statute book, and showed no signs of being pacified by the Government's gesture.
Stephen Bradshaw, of Rights Now, said: 'If you are a black person or a woman you cannot be excluded from a pub or a cafe. But disabled people are actually refused entry to go in and buy something simple like a cup of tea.'
(Photograph omitted)
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