Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department will take to ensure disabled people will be able to access the consultation on the Disability Action Plan.

As previously announced, the Disability Action Plan will set out the immediate action the Government will take in 2023 and 2024 to improve disabled people’s lives, as well as laying the foundations for longer term change.

There is already significant work being taken forward by individual Government departments in areas disabled people have told us are a priority. This includes reforms to employment and welfare via the DWP’s ‘Transforming Support: Health and Disability White Paper’, and strategies to address health and social care via DHSC’s ‘People at the Heart of Care White Paper’. These are long term reform efforts which are already underway and outside the scope of a new one to two year action plan.

The plan will go further in areas where we think joint action across Government departments can make a tangible difference to disabled people’s lives in the immediate term - or where we can make meaningful progress towards a longer term goal, for example improved disability data and evidence.

We are planning to consult on the Disability Action Plan this summer, publishing a full draft of the plan alongside a set of consultation questions.

This consultation will be an opportunity for everyone - disabled people, disabled people’s organisations, other interested parties - to have their say on the Disability Action Plan. It will be fully accessible to ensure that disabled people can take part, including being made available in various accessible formats.

We will consider all responses to the consultation carefully before publishing the final Disability Action Plan.