Disability Rights Commission: Transport Code of Practice

My honourable friend the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport (Karen Buck) has made the following Ministerial Statement. I have today laid copies of the Disability Right's Commission's (DRC's) draft code of practice on the provision and use of transport vehicles before the House. The code, which has been developed in consultation with major stakeholders including industry representatives and the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee and been subject to public consultation, is a supplement to the DRC's existing code of practice on rights of access to services and premises for all other service providers, and it is intended to be read in conjunction with that publication. It is designed to assist the operators of rail vehicles (including light rail, underground and trams), buses, coaches, taxis, private hire vehicles, vehicle hire, breakdown services and vehicles used on leisure and tourism transport services in meeting their new duties under Part 3 of the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) 1995 as amended by the DDA 2005. The new duties, which stem from the Disability Discrimination (Transport Vehicles) Regulations 2005, will come into force on 4 December 2006. When the regulations are in force, disabled people will have certain rights to transport services in the same way as they do to other services such as shops and banks.