Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how his Department plans to monitor voluntary compliance with disability awareness training by bus and coach companies.

In March 2013, the Department for Transport applied a number of time-limited exemptions available within EU Regulation 181/2011 (concerning the rights of passengers in bus and coach transport) including one from the requirement for drivers to undertake mandatory disability awareness training.

Before taking this decision, the Department requested information from the Confederation of Passenger Transport (trade association for the bus and coach industry) on the percentage of bus and coach drivers that had completed some form of disability awareness training. The information provided suggested that this figure was approximately 75% in March 2013.

On 24 February 2014, my noble Friend, the Minister of State for Transport, Baroness Kramer wrote again to the Confederation for Passenger Transport, seeking an update on the percentage of drivers that have completed disability awareness training. This updated information is being used to inform the Department's current review of the disability awareness training exemption and will be made available shortly when the Department announces the outcome of this review.

As part of the review, Ministers will consider what the appropriate future monitoring arrangements should be.