Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent representations he has received on shared space schemes and the difficulties they cause to blind and partially-sighted people.

Ministers have met regularly with groups representing blind and partially sighted people to discuss many issues on transport accessibility, including shared space.

In March 2015, the Minister of State for Transport, Baroness Kramer, wrote to all local authorities in England to remind them of the Department’s advice on designing shared space in Local Transport Note 1/11 ‘Shared Space’, their duties under equalities legislation and the National Federation of the Blind UK guidance note ‘Access for Blind People in Towns’. A copy of that letter was included in the Secretary of State’s response of 18 March 2015 to the Transport Select Committee’s questions on this issue.