Disabled peers speak of ‘daily fight’ against access barriers in House of Lords

Disabled peers have told a committee of MPs that they face a “daily fight” just to be able to do their job, because of their continuing battle against the access barriers within the House of Lords.

Members of the Commons modernisation committee heard how disabled peers and civil servants had to confront both physical and attitudinal barriers in their daily work in the Lords.

The committee – which is carrying out an inquiry into the accessibility of the Commons and its procedures – had heard from disabled MPs last month that the Lords was “aeons ahead” of the Commons on providing an accessible working environment for parliamentarians.

But the evidence given by four disabled peers on Tuesday suggested the Lords was far from being a beacon of equality and accessibility.

Labour’s Lord [David] Blunkett, crossbench peer Baroness [Tanni] Grey-Thompson, Liberal Democrat frontbencher Baroness [Sal] Brinton and Conservative peer Lord [Kevin] Shinkwin all spoke of the daily frustrations they face in trying to do their jobs in the House of Lords.

Baroness Brinton said she was no longer able to open the doors in the corridors of the Lords because they are too heavy and are kept shut for “security reasons”.

She said she was nearly at the point of needing a personal assistant to allow her to move around the Lords.

And she spoke of the battle she had as a user of an electric wheelchair to be able to manoeuvre in and out of one of the accessible toilets.

She said: “And that day-to-day experience, multiplied across virtually every disabled toilet in this place, except the Changing Places one, is really infuriating, and you just feel you are doing a battle with the building every day.”

She told the MPs: “We respect the history and tradition in our House, which goes back way beyond yours… but we are a functioning parliament and we need to have a House that can actually work effectively, and sometimes I’m afraid the building does get in the way.”

She spoke of the long-delayed plans to renovate the Palace of Westminster, and said it was currently impossible for a wheelchair-user to speak as a minister from the despatch box in the House of Lords.

She said: “I don’t think the consultants who are doing the design work understand these issues fully, and it will be outrageous if we came back to a brand-new building that presumably is expected to last for 200 years, and there is nothing to make sure that a politician in a wheelchair could use either despatch box [in the Lords or the Commons] or be the Speaker or the Lord Speaker… or a senior clerk.”

Lord Blunkett told the committee: “I just think that there’s goodwill about modernisation, but there’s not good practice.

“It has taken a long time before, for instance, those operating IT have the least idea how to cope with variations and requirements for those who have got special needs.

“It’s getting there and there’s some very good people trying very hard, but it’s taken a long time.”

Asked about the balance between tradition and the need for adjustments for disabled people, he said: “I’m an out and out modernizer, I believe that tradition is often used as an excuse for inaction.”

And he said that the financial supplements that some disabled peers receive to support them with their assistance requirements are only available when the House of Lords is sitting.

He said: “I can live with that because I’m very fortunate, I have outside earnings and I can afford to top that up together with my own daily allowance to pay my assistant, who’s brilliant, who I couldn’t do anything without, but other people can’t.”

He added: “I do resent the feeling that they’re doing people a favour.

“I think that is the worst feature of some of the attitudes in this place, and I’ve been here 37 years, man and boy, the supercilious pretence of being understanding whilst actually being patronizing and not understanding at all.

“And in the Lords, finance are the worst.”

Baroness Grey-Thompson, a retired multi-gold-medal-winning wheelchair athlete, said that new carpets laid in the House of Lords were “virtually impossible for me to push on”.

She said: “You can’t push in a straight line because the way they’re laid it sends your wheelchair in all sorts of odd directions.

“Considering that the House of Lords has a reasonable number of people who have some form of disability or impairment, it’s actually just hard to kind of do your daily business.

“It shouldn’t be a daily fight just to do your job.

“I’m not sure whether it’s because I’m getting older, but it does feel that it takes more and more energy just to be able to do the things that maybe others take for granted.”

Lord Shinkwin said that a meeting held last week by the Lord Speaker [who presides over the House of Lords] to examine access issues did not provide a palantypist, so a peer with a hearing impairment was unable to understand what was being said.

He said he believed that disabled peers were facing cultural and attitudinal problems.

He said: “Every time I come into work… I’m reminded that this is an institution that was designed and built by non-disabled people for non-disabled people, and it’s still run by non-disabled people for non-disabled people.”

He said he did not understand why the authorities did not appoint a disabled person at a senior level to address “so many of the issues that we’re encountering”.

Lord Shinkwin said: “In the time I’ve been here, we must have had three or four disability access audits that have simply gathered dust on some shelf, but after probably hundreds of thousands of taxpayers’ money has been spent on having them done.”

He told the committee: “There’s no real recognition that as a body that passes laws on disability discrimination and equality, we might just have a duty to be a beacon of best practice.”

Picture: (From left to right) Lord Blunkett, Baroness Grey-Thompson, Lord Shinkwin and Baroness Brinton

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