Disability Discrimination (Private Clubs etc.) Regulations 2005

My Lords, I too welcome the regulations. It is overdue that the same rights and privileges that have been extended to disabled people from the 1995 Act onwards should extend to their activities in clubs. I have no doubt about that. I was going to ask the Minister various questions about ““reasonableness”” in this particular circumstance, but since the same test will be used as has been used previously in respect of public buildings and so on, I do not think that it is necessary. However, I think it is necessary to follow up a point made in another place by my honourable friend the Member for Wells, which was that Parliament passes legislation and so often expects others to execute it. There is a well trodden path on disability legislation, which we all know about—at least there has been up to now. The aggrieved person would normally turn to the Disability Rights Commission. In passing, I congratulate the Government on setting that up in the first place. As I say, he would normally turn to the DRC after his complaint to the perpetrator of the alleged offence had been ignored. The commission, if it thought it right, would then take up the case. That was the position when we debated the Bill earlier this year. However, the DRC is about to disappear into a body called, I believe, the equal opportunity and human rights commission. Clearly, the latter will have the capability to act for the complainant, but will it have the same clout that the DRC has achieved in its short lifetime in sorting out the disabled person’s problems, not only as a last resort but in taking cases to court? Lastly, there is a whole raft of regulations flowing from two Acts. Are there any plans within the department to consolidate both them and the two Acts into a single entity, not necessarily an Act but into plain man’s language, so that those affected by them can readily understand what is being demanded of them? I understood the Minister just now to tell us that there would be a plain man’s guide to access to clubs following up this order, but that is only a part of the whole general scheme which I believe is required.