United Nations Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Inquiry 2016: UK Follow-up Repor

Chloe Smith Excerpts

Thursday 9th December 2021 Written Statements

[The Minister of State, Department for Work and Pensions (Chloe Smith)]

Today I will place in the Library of the House a copy of the UK’s 2021 follow-up report to the UN Committee on the Rights of Disabled People following the 2016 inquiry.

This Government are more committed than ever to eliminating barriers so that everyone can participate in society. This commitment aligns with the UN convention on the rights of persons with disabilities (the convention), which protects and promotes the rights of disabled people. The follow-up report demonstrates how we are implementing the convention and showcases the UK’s progress over the past two years in creating more opportunities for disabled people to participate and thrive in society.

The report shows positive action taking place across the UK to support disabled people, through policies and programmes that tackle the barriers faced by disabled people.

As a key element of this, in July 2021 we published the national disability strategy, which sets out steps to improve disabled people’s everyday lives. It offers both a positive vision for long-term societal change and a wide-ranging, practical plan for action now. The strategy includes over 100 practical actions from right across Government to improve the lives of disabled people, across education, employment, housing, transport, shopping, culture, justice, public services, and data and evidence.

In July 2021, we published “Shaping future support: the health and disability green paper”, which explores how the welfare system can better meet the needs of disabled people. We are committed to improving access to crucial support.

We also published our response to “Health is everyone’s business” (HiEB) in July 2021, which sets out measures the Government are taking to provide greater clarity around employer and employee rights and responsibilities: address the need for employers to have access to information and advice that is easy to understand, trustworthy and accessible, and encourage more employers to provide access to expert support services such as occupational health (OH).

Together these publications show the Government’s holistic approach to supporting disabled people and those with long-term health conditions to live full and independent lives.

The report shows that we are continuing to support disabled people in all aspects of everyday life. We are investing more than ever before in disability benefits and providing more personalised and tailored employment support to help more disabled people start, stay and succeed in work. As set out in the national disability strategy, we are committed to improving the accessibility of housing and are investing further in making public spaces accessible to all. We are prioritising funding for adult social care and personalised care reform to ensure everyone receives the right care they need; and we have increased grant funding across the UK for children and adults to support this. We are continuing to put the voices of disabled people first by engaging with disabled people and stakeholders through DPOs, networks and relevant organisations.

Everyone should be able to participate fully in society—whoever you are, wherever you live, and importantly, whether you have a disability or not. That is the vision we have set, accompanied not by rhetoric but with tangible action plans, to create a society that is safer and fairer for all.

[HCWS456]