Local Democracy, Economic Development and Construction Bill [HL]

My Lords, I supported the noble Lord, Lord Low, when he moved similar amendments in Grand Committee, and I still support the sentiment which lies behind them. In response to the noble Lord at Committee, the noble Lord, Lord Patel, rightly pointed out that there is an existing duty in the Disability Discrimination Act 2005, so passing another law saying the same thing does not get us very far. The relevant sections of the Disability Discrimination Act are Section 2 on "Discrimination by public authorities", which have a duty not to discriminate, and Section 3 on "Duties of public authorities", especially their duty in new paragraph (c) to, ""promote equality of opportunity between disabled persons and other persons"," and their duty in new paragraph (f) to, ""encourage participation by disabled persons in public life"." However, the problem, as the noble Lord, Lord Low, pointed out in his contribution to the debate on the Disabled Persons (Independent Living) Bill in your Lordships’ House last Friday, is that: ""Making services and information accessible is a legal requirement under the DDA. Yet, the public sector still too often fails to meet these obligations".—[Official Report, 13/3/09; col. 1398.]" I have seen a snapshot survey published by the RNIB which suggests that very few councils are in a position to offer full services to those with disabilities. At Grand Committee, the Minister appeared to wash his hands of responsibility, by saying that: ""We have to trust local authorities and their track record".—[Official Report, 19/1/09; col. GC 91.]" In terms of the bigger picture of this Bill, that is quite some movement on the Government’s position. On the one hand the Government have put together this enormously overdetailed Bill, setting out what local authorities must and must not do, while on the other hand they are saying, in effect, "Once we have put this great burden on you, you must get on with it and it’s none of our business any more". The Government created the Disability Discrimination Act. What are they doing to make sure it is implemented? Would this not be a good time to concentrate on working out how to help local authorities implement existing duties, rather than creating a Bill full of new duties?