Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what steps she is taking to ensure that guide dog owners are not refused access to businesses and services.

The Equality Act 2010 places a general duty on businesses and service providers to make reasonable adjustments to allow disabled people access to goods and services so they are not placed at a substantial disadvantage compared to non-disabled people.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Equality Act. In 2017 it published two pieces of guidance - ‘a guide to help businesses understand what they can do to meet their legal duties to assistance dog owners’, and ‘a guide to help tourism businesses welcome people with access requirements’.

Duties and protections under the Equality Act are ultimately enforceable through the courts, and anybody who thinks that they have been discriminated against - including where access to an assistance dog has been refused - can take legal action to seek to resolve the issue. The EHRC will support people who have experienced discrimination through that process.