European Communities (Definition of Treaties) (United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities) Order 2009

I, too, welcome the debate about the Government’s decision to ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Slowly but surely the milestones are being reached on the long road towards equal treatment for those with disabilities. Like my noble friends, I deplore the Government’s refusal to consult publicly on the reservations they intend to make, which makes it sound as though they have something to hide or are ashamed of them. Before coming to the reservations, I also record my concern that there is still no formal procedure by which Parliament can scrutinise treaties or even conventions before they are ratified. I am grateful to the JCHR for publishing a report on which a debate can be held. In my ignorance, I thought that a treaty scrutiny committee had been agreed, and cannot for the life of me think why it has not. Turning now to the only reservation I shall speak about, the one on special schools and parental choice in education, one immediately steps into a minefield. What we all want is for all mainstream schools to be able not just to cope with children with all kinds of disabilities, but to do the very best for all these children. I gather that if this reservation goes ahead, the Government are in danger of giving the wrong signal to the mainstream world that they do not have to bother with quite the same urgency with adaptations, extra help and so on, because the special schools are always there to take the children with the most challenging problems. I can see that point. However, I can also see that there are severely disabled children who flourish in some absolutely brilliant special schools, such as Prior’s Court near Newbury, which caters for children at the far end of the autistic spectrum. So what is the answer? I think that it must be that if the Government are going to lodge this reservation, they will have to demonstrate that they will work doubly hard to ensure that the vast majority of disabled children are enabled to access mainstream education. I heard only this morning that there are still schools where there are no lavatories accessible to children with muscular dystrophy, for example. That is unforgiveable in 2009. I echo the question that my noble friend Lord Lester of Herne Hill asked about whether the purpose of the reservation is simply to clarify that nothing in the convention requires the UK to work towards the eventual elimination of special schools. My last word on the subject is to ask the Government what new, positive action they are going to take to compensate, if that is the right word, for putting in this reservation on educating people with disabilities. If the noble Lord, Lord McKenzie, cannot answer that question now, as I do not expect him to, perhaps he could write to me. As far as the other reservations are concerned, I concur with the views of my noble friend and look forward to hearing the speech of my noble friend or, if I can call her that, my noble colleague Lady Campbell.