Disabled Access (Aviation Industry)

Lord Blunkett Excerpts

Wednesday 7th November 2012 Westminster Hall

[Mr David Blunkett (Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough) (Lab)]

First, I declare an interest, and secondly I apologise: I was in a Statutory Instrument Committee on child maintenance and could not get to the debate until now. However, I commend my office for giving me a wonderful breakdown of what everyone said. I shall try not to repeat things, but my staff could not find anything that they thought I would disagree with, so that is a great start.

As well as congratulating the hon. Member for Weaver Vale (Graham Evans), and the hon. Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys (Paul Maynard) on his chairing of the all-party group on young disabled people, and his work with the Trailblazers, I want to say that things have improved a lot, but have a long way to go. I understand that the improvement that has been made to rail travel has already been mentioned. Buses are somewhat difficult, because catching one is sometimes a difficulty, never mind what happens when someone with a motor problem wants to get on and off. However, strides have been taken, and it is the airline industry that now has the greater challenge. The range of requirements involved has been mentioned, and they include not just those of people who have traditional problems with mobility—persons with reduced mobility, or PRMs, as they are known in the trade—but those of a growing elderly population who will require all forms of assistance as they seek to carry on living their lives to the full and moving across the world.

I want to make two or three obvious points. One has already been made, and it is about training, but not just the training of individuals. I find that individual airline assistants, whether those who work on the ground, pilots or the people who serve in the cabin, are usually excellent. The issue is, sometimes, training in the systems that they are expected to operate. For example, two weeks ago I was flying back from Belfast to East Midlands airport. When I arrived with my wife at Belfast airport we discovered that even though we had booked and registered in advance, and the dog had a registration number of his own, we had all been booked on three separate rows. It was somewhat difficult for me, but it would have been impossible for the person who ended up with the dog. The staff were wonderful and did their best, but resolving the situation entailed someone being asked to move. The airline staff gave them a free drink, which I was grateful for, because I was going to do it if they did not; however, the incident shows the fact that the problems are often not intentional. The issue is not about individuals, but processes and the way in which people plan, on their websites and computer systems, to be as helpful as possible; it is also about how, where there is a problem, it is escalated up the management trail. Most hon. Members, and certainly the people we represent, have a hell of a job getting to anyone these days who has any authority to sort out problems. If that can be done quickly, it is all to the good.

The other main point that I wanted to make—because we are all of a mind, here, about the need for substantial progress—is that it is not only training and process that are crucial, but also the interface between different organisations and agencies. It is okay having a go at airlines, but they have a problem with the implementation of European regulations by airports, and whether the airports take the issue seriously. Ann Bates, a wheelchair user whom I now know well, as she serves on the advisory committee that I chair, is advising Gatwick, and has made progress with others working at Gatwick to improve the situation. She rightly points out that we may have the best will in the world about the booking facility, the way people’s needs are taken into account and the way they are helped on to the aircraft, and the changes that the hon. Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys mentioned, to do with using technology imaginatively; but if people in different organisations, and different service deliverers, have not got their act together, the individual who is being served will not be in a good place.

The surveys show that the biggest grumblers are blind people. That may have something to do with the fact that I have discovered over many years that those who cannot see are pretty good at grumbling, on the whole; or it might have something to do with the fact that people who cannot see are assumed not to be able to walk either. I am sure that that happens to deaf people, and that people with motor difficulties are thought to be deaf, and are shouted at; but I cannot count the number times in the past 40 years when I have been offered a wheelchair at airports. If I were to tether the dog to the front of the wheelchair I could do a pretty good job in the winter of having a sledge; but it is not a lot of use on the day. In the end the issue is about building in processes from the beginning, thinking through the likely problems and dealing with them, and being able to deal with such matters at a senior management level—and it is about common sense. Common sense is thinking “How would I want to be dealt with? How would I want my problems and challenges to be overcome if I were in that situation?” and then doing something about it.

Finally, I hope that the Department will consider how it can help with the process of getting everyone who has a part to play to get their act together. Individual airlines, or even the airlines joining together—which would be a miracle—can do their bit. European regulation, and the implementation of existing national legislation, can make a massive difference; but getting the systems joined up would take us that extra mile and would ensure that in future people do not have the kinds of experiences that have been described this afternoon.

Rail Investment

Lord Blunkett Excerpts

Monday 16th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Justine Greening]

There will be a variety of upgrades of junctions, tracks and capacity. One key aspect of today’s announcement is the removal of some of the bottlenecks that often stop passenger trains going as fast as they can. Many of us will have been on a passenger train while it travelled at what seemed to be quite a slow pace. That is often because it is stuck behind a freight train. A number of the smaller improvements we are making today will mean that that happens less and that will be one of the things we can do to improve my hon. Friend’s line.

[Mr David Blunkett (Sheffield, Brightside and Hillsborough) (Lab)]

It would be churlish not to welcome the fulfilment of a Labour pledge to electrify the midland main line and to make the associated improvements. Will the Secretary of State tell us exactly when those improvements and the electrification will begin?

[Justine Greening]

The improvements will take place over the 2014 to 2019 period, as the project is developed and rolled out. I have worked hard to ensure that Sheffield has a good transport package from the Department. Another thing that I managed to get sorted out, which the right hon. Gentleman’s Government never did, was £3 million for a footpath bridge over the railway line, which will mean that his community and others around that area can get into Sheffield from the other side of the railway track. I believe that that, alongside the midland main line scheme and the capacity changes, means that by 2019 he will see a much better service.