28 September 2010
Disability campaigners have expressed concern about government plans to scrap quangos that champion the rights of disabled people.
A Cabinet Office document leaked on September 24 gave details of the 180 quangos that are to be abolished, and a further 94 that are under threat. Several disability-focused quangos are among those to be axed: the Disability Employment Advisory Committee, the Disability Living Allowance/Attendance Allowance Advisory Board and the Disabled Persons’ Transport Advisory Committee. All these bodies sit under the auspices of the Department of Health.
No decision has yet been taken about the future of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, but it is under threat of closure.
A spokesman for the charity Scope said the quangos facing the axe had been set up to ‘provide the government with insight and understanding into the reality of disabled people’s lives’. He added: ‘Either we assume that they have found other ways of tapping into disabled people’s experiences, or this is another example of the government making cuts without having considered the consequences. We hope it is the former.’
Steve Winyard, head of policy and campaigns at the Royal National Institute of Blind People, told Public Finance: ‘It is vital that [the Equality and Human Rights Commission] remains, unless an equivalent independent organisation is established to take on its considerable responsibilities, including the special attention to disability rights, where there is still so much to do.’
A spokeswoman for the Equality and Human Rights Commission said it would not speculate on the leaked list.
