Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the policy paper entitled Inclusive Transport Strategy, published on 25 July 2018, what recent progress his Department has made on helping to ensure equal access for people with disabilities on public transport.

Good progress has been made on the Inclusive Transport Strategy (ITS), and the majority of commitments have now been completed.

In the last year, the Department has delivered a number of commitments from the ITS, including:

• consulting on best practice guidance for taxi and private hire vehicle licensing and proposing updated guidance on disability awareness training;
• working with the aviation sector, consumer and disability groups to develop and publish the Aviation Passenger Charter, providing a single point of information for consumers on their rights and responsibilities;
• delivering a further round of our “It’s Everyone’s Journey” campaign, aiming to raise public awareness of the needs of disabled passengers when travelling.

We are committed to delivering the remaining ITS commitments. In January 2022, the Department published a baseline evaluation report, which provides a detailed picture of disabled people’s experience using the transport network as we work towards full implementation of the ITS. This will be used as a baseline for future evaluation, including the annual scorecard of disabled people’s experiences using the transport network. The next scorecard is due to be published this spring, and a final evaluation report will be published in 2024.