Good afternoon and thank you to Disability Wales for inviting me to speak at this National Summit on Brexit and Disabled People and Cross Party Panel debate on the future for disabled people post Brexit.
I look forward to responding to audience questions on what this means for disabled people.
It was revealed last week that the Prime Minister has written to every UK Cabinet Minister asking them to review how their Department can help lower barriers that disabled people face in their everyday lives.
The letter stated “many disabled people find it hard to access services that others take for granted.
“That isn’t just unfair, it is also a criminal waste of potential that shamefully and quite needlessly constrains the prosperity of our entire nation.”
Their findings are expected within weeks so that a UK Government Green Paper setting out a new UK Government Strategy for Disabled People can be published by the summer.
The UK Government has made it clear that it wants the UK to lead a "global race to the top" in rights and standards, not a "competitive race to the bottom".
It has stated that “there will be no change to rights for disabled people. The UK has historically led the way in this area and will continue to do so”.
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Disabled Persons adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 9, 1975 states that all disabled persons have the same rights as other persons – and recognises the obstacles created by social institutions and society in general.
Although non-binding, the Declaration marked the beginning of a new approach to disability issues as human rights issues.
The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities was adopted on December 13, 2006 – and the UK Government signed this legal Treaty in 2009.
This is independent of EU Membership AND sets out what rights Disabled People should have, alongside international benchmarks - covering areas including health, education, employment, access to justice, personal security, independent living and access to information.
The UK Equality Act came into force on 1 October 2010, bringing together over 116 separate pieces of legislation into one single Act.
It provides the UK with a discrimination law which protects individuals from unfair treatment and promotes a fair and more equal society.
Disability is a protected characteristic under this Act, which applies to all public authorities, including local authorities, police officers and courts and tribunals, and to all other bodies, whether public or private, performing public functions.
It states that "service providers must think ahead and take steps to address barriers that impede disabled people. In doing this, it is a good idea to consider the range of disabilities that your actual or potential service users might have. You should not wait until a disabled person experiences difficulties using a service”.
Its duty to make reasonable adjustments for disabled people aims to make sure that disabled people can use an organisation’s services as close as it is reasonably possible to get to the standard usually offered to non-disabled people.
Brexit does not change any of this and organisations which fail to act accordingly are already acting unlawfully.
At a devolved level, both the Social Services and Wellbeing (Wales) Act and Wellbeing of Future Generations (Wales) Act require public bodies to do things with people, not to or for them.
Brexit does not change this either.
Leaving the EU does not affect our rights under the European Convention on Human Rights - or ECHR, as this comes from the Council of Europe, not the EU.
The UK Government has clearly stated that the UK is committed to membership of the ECHR – and that withdrawing from it would run counter to its vision of a “Global Britain”.
The ECHR is actually British in origin – it was advocated by Winston Churchill and drafted by former UK Home Secretary, David Maxwell-Fyfe.
I’m pleased that Disability Wales has been awarded project funding to support disabled people and prepare them for the potential impacts which the UK’s exit from the EU may have on their day-to-day lives including:
- engagement opportunities tailored around disabled people’s needs,
- information and signposting in accessible formats,
- regional events aimed at local disability organisations across Wales
- and the establishment of a virtual disability policy network.
As Chair of the Cross Party Group on Disability, I recognise, above all, the need to champion key pan-impairment disability equality issues including implementation of the Social Model of Disability and the right to Independent Living.