Plaid Cymru calls for implementation of UN disability convention into UK law

Although Plaid Cymru’s manifesto contains just seven explicit mentions of disability in 72 pages, some of those policies would provide significant new rights for disabled people.

A key pledge in the manifesto is that Plaid Cymru would push to implement the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities into UK law.

It promises to do this by working with the UN committee on the rights of persons with disabilities, disabled people’s organisations, disability charities and disabled people.

Such a policy, it says, would secure dignity, human rights and fundamental freedoms for disabled people, as well as freedom from “poverty, social exclusion, discrimination, and negligence”.

The policy creates a sharp contrast with Labour, which has provoked widespread anger and frustration among disabled people after dropping its previous pledge to implement the UN convention (see separate story).

The Liberal Democrats have also promised to implement the UN convention in their election manifesto.

Plaid Cymru promises to create a National Care Service for Wales, and to “work towards” the goal of an end to care charges.

On social security, it says there should be a “Welsh benefits system”, with a “particularly strong case” for devolving benefits such as those linked to health and housing as they are “most closely aligned to existing devolved policy areas”.

The manifesto also stresses that the party opposes Conservative proposals to tighten the work capability assessment and measures announced last year through the UK government’s Back to Work Plan.

Plaid Cymru says this plan “again appears to blame people for being unwell and unable to work as they would wish to do so” and that it rejects “the discourse of blaming people for the circumstances in which they find themselves”.

On housing, the party points to the huge unmet demand for “bungalows for an ageing population”, although it fails to refer to similar levels of unmet demand for accessible housing for working-age disabled people.

But it says it would address the failure of developers to “build houses that answer community needs” by reforming the planning system “so that it is consistent with local needs and aspirations, rather than reflecting the interests of developers”.

And, it says, it would provide “funding packages to assist local government to robustly enforce planning decisions ensuring that developers stick to agreements”.

On criminal justice, Plaid Cymru says it would provide “better support” for the many people with ADHD in the prison system, and when they leave prison, which includes “training for all prison staff in ADHD awareness and appropriate medication care plans”, as well as ensuring access to safe housing, and local mental health and probation support.

Picture: Plaid Cymru leader Rhun ap Iorwerth

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