Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

I am grateful to the Minister for that reply and to the noble Baronesses who have spoken in support of the amendment. I am more than a little reassured by the Minister’s response. His reference to the department’s intention to produce guidance to support the duty under subsection (1)—that is, to provide information to the public generally—is important and welcome. I would be very happy to be involved with the department in developing that guidance. I also agree that it is probably not a good idea to spell out in legislation all the groups who might be covered by the duty to provide information. I recognise that, although I referred principally to blind and partially sighted people whose needs I know best, there are other groups, such as those with hearing impairments or learning difficulties, to which the Minister has rightly referred, to whose needs we need to pay attention. Welcome as all of that is, I would have liked the Minister to go further. I thought that he would refer to the Disability Discrimination Act and the duty to make reasonable adjustments. The problem is that that legislation has been in place for some time, but there is still the democratic deficit to which I referred in moving the amendment. The legislation is in place, but it by no means does all that it was intended to do in this area. We need to do more to encourage it to have the effect that it was always intended to have. The guidance on which the Minister has rested his case principally will certainly go some way, but I am inclined still to feel that it would help the guidance to bite if we had the duty, which I am seeking to insert, in the legislation. I will read carefully what the Minister has said and will reflect on it. Perhaps we could have a discussion before Report in the hope of reaching a form of words with which everyone is happy.