Disabled Persons (Independent Living) Bill [HL]

My Lords, I am sorry. It comes from being a dyslexic, I am afraid. We make mistakes. The noble Baroness pointed out that the lucky and the brilliant get through the current system; it is that simple. It may be better now than it was—as the noble Baroness said, let us try to get it right for a second time—but we have to go further. The Government will tell us, quite rightly, that they have made considerable steps forward. They have, but so they should. On this issue, every Government and every Parliament can say that they have done better than the preceding one. The counter to that is, ““And so you should. You should learn from mistakes. You should make sure that you do not commit the errors of the past””. The noble Lord, Lord Best, referred to new-build housing. It is much easier to incorporate the necessary facilities in new build and to get it right now because there will be no add-on costs. The London Underground system is a classic example. As the noble Lord, Lord Best, said, it has too many steps, which are inconvenient to everyone—a mother pushing a buggy or someone with an injured leg. A few years ago when I was on crutches for a few weeks, it was very much emphasised to me that the steps in the London Tube system are incredibly difficult for anyone with any form of movement impairment. Add a bag to the equation, and many Underground stations become almost impossible to get around. The Bill of the noble Lord, Lord Ashley, calls for co-ordination of best practice leading to a situation where you have to do what is deemed to be best at the time. The comment of the noble Lord, Lord Pearson, about the best way forward for various groups within the disability community is an argument for setting up a framework to deal with this. The disability lobby is so multifaceted that you must effectively formalise informality; you must build in flexibility, but there must be an end point. We must try to get this right. Every time we make a mistake, to come back to the point made by the noble Lord, Lord Best, that effectively generates on-costs. If we do not provide the right support for carers, they will be taken out of economic activity. We all know this. It is absolutely accepted by everyone. If carers become economically active, that will help to balance the nation’s economy, as will getting more disabled people into work. The world of work is changing; often it involves not physical activity but mental activity. If you enhance the position of people with disabilities, many of them will be able to work and enhance the economy. There are savings to be made if there is investment up front. There are great bureaucratic dragons to be slain with this Bill. If the Government can show us that they are doing that anyway and that there is some form of enforcement to ensure that it is happening, we will go away happy. I will take considerable convincing, however, because usually at this stage we hear about a series of committees. Unless there is a driving force behind the committees and these new liaison groups, I am worried. Unless we tell people to do things, we will have not the old postcode lottery but a whole new one, albeit involving different and larger areas. I look forward to hearing what the Minister says in reply to this debate. The noble Lord, Lord Ashley, has shown the one true quality that anyone needs to change anything in Parliament: perseverance.