Welfare Reform Bill

I shall be very brief, as I know that the Minister wants to respond to the debate. The amendments so eloquently explained by the hon. Member for Kingswood (Roger Berry) touch the conceptual basis of the Bill, and are profoundly important. He was right to say that all parties subscribe, to a greater or lesser degree, to the social model of disability. They agree that a disability is not merely a health condition or impairment, but has to do with the barriers that society puts in the way of people who are disabled. It is important that the Bill reflects that conceptual agreement, and the amendments draw attention to the language that is used in the Bill. The hon. Member for South-West Surrey (Mr. Hunt) said that we debated amendments in Committee that would have used the term ““labour market disadvantage”” in relation to disability or impairment. I believe that that would capture much more accurately what the assessment procedure would determine, and today’s amendments would allow the same thing to happen. They would not in every case lead to huge changes in how the assessment process works—although they might do so in respect of the work-focused health-related assessment—but they would send the clear signal that the Bill makes real the Government’s acceptance of the reality of the social model of disability. For that reason, I commend the amendments to the House.