Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what cross-government mechanisms are in place to monitor and assess compliance by public bodies with their obligations under the Equality Act 2010 to establish, record, implement and comply with reasonable adjustments regarding communication preferences for disabled and vulnerable service users.

The Equality Act 2010 (the Act) places a duty on service providers and those who exercise public functions to make reasonable adjustments, to improve services for disabled service users or potential service users.

The duty on service providers is anticipatory. This requires service providers to consider reasonable adjustments even before an individual disabled person accesses their services.

The duty to make reasonable adjustments creates a powerful, flexible duty to ensure that disabled people are entitled to the same opportunities as everyone else, without imposing unreasonable burdens on service providers.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has a monitoring and enforcement role in relation to the Act, including in relation to the duty to make reasonable adjustments. It has statutory powers to enforce compliance with the Act, and to challenge organisations where required. The EHRC is independent from the government and makes its own operational decisions on enforcement and regulation.