18 May 2007
Court action came a step closer this week for nine public sector bodies that have continued to fail to comply with new disability discrimination legislation.
Five councils, two NHS organisations, a further education college and a museum have been issued with compliance notices and have 28 days to inform the Disability Rights Commission of their plans to produce a disability equality scheme. This would then meet the public sector Disability Equality Duty, which came into force on December 4 last year. If they fail to respond, the notice can be enforced in the county court.
Marie Pye, head of public sector duty at the DRC, said sending out the compliance notices was a serious step, which had been taken with the agreement of the watchdog's legal committee.
The organisations concerned claimed that they had an ongoing and demonstrable commitment to equality issues. Irene Clarke, director of human resources and communications at Epsom and Ewell Borough Council, told PF it was 'unfortunate' that the authority had missed the deadline for producing the scheme, attributing this to internal changes within the council. 'We wanted to do a thorough exercise,' she said, adding that the council had decided earlier this year to survey staff and the community on equality issues. The results would be submitted to the DRC together with a draft equality scheme shortly.
PFmay2007
