Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, if she will extend access to the EnAble fund to provide financial assistance to deaf and disabled parliamentary General Election candidates to assist with disability-related costs in the forthcoming General Election.

The Government recognises that disabled people are likely to face greater costs when seeking elected office due to their disability. That is why we launched the EnAble Fund for Elected Office to help cover disability related expenses. As an interim fund it gave political parties the time to put in place measures to support disabled candidates.

The Fund is time limited and was put in place for elections that had been planned. Therefore, funding has not been scheduled for this election. Retrospective support, as with this year’s European Parliamentary Elections, could be considered for candidates but this would be for the next Government to decide.