High court case poses challenge to new government’s commitment to disability justice and co-production

A disabled campaigner helped to challenge the new government in the high court this week over the impact of accelerating climate change, and its commitment to co-producing policy with disabled people and their organisations.

Doug Paulley, and fellow disabled activist Kevin Jordan, have joined with Friends of the Earth to challenge the UK government’s failure to protect people, property and infrastructure from climate change’s foreseeable impacts.

They were at the high court in London for a two-day hearing as their lawyers argued that the current version of the government’s National Adaptation Programme (NAP) was unlawful and breached both the Climate Change Act and the Human Rights Act.

A judgement is expected within weeks.

Jordan was made homeless shortly before last Christmas, when his house in Hemsby, Norfolk, was demolished after coastal erosion fuelled by sea level rise and severe storms caused by climate change put it in severe danger of falling into the sea.

Paulley is better known as a disability rights campaigner, particularly on accessible transport, but he was an environmental campaigner before he became a disability rights activist, and he has a degree in geophysics and previously worked for the Environment Agency.

He told Disability News Service, during a break on the first day of the two-day hearing, that the case would challenge the new Labour government’s pledge to put disabled people and their organisations at the heart of producing disability-related policy.

He said the change of government from Conservative to Labour was a “significant difference” since they filed the case last October.

And he said the new government had “hit the ground running” when it came to environmental policy but had so far failed to show the same commitment on disability rights.

He added: “I just hope it rubs off into some form of commitment to disability rights and justice.”

Asked for his message to Keir Starmer, the prime minister, he said: “Please rewrite the climate adaptation plan, involving disabled people properly from the start, and do it quick.

“Genuine involvement, please… and proper stuff that we can hold them to [account on].”

He said: “People are suffering and dying, and disabled people disproportionately so.

“It’s always the people who can least afford to adapt who have to adapt or suffer, which is disgraceful.

“We saw the excess deaths from the 2022 European heatwave, and we saw what happened with Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and with Covid.”

He said disabled people were disproportionately affected by the impacts of climate change but had been “badly let down” by the last government’s NAP.

Paulley said the Conservative government’s NAP completely failed to address the threats disabled people face from extreme weather, such as flooding and heatwaves, and power cuts during storms.

He said: “The lack of planning makes me fearful that in an emergency disabled people won’t be properly protected.”

Their legal case also argues that searing summer temperatures significantly impact him because of long-term health conditions that make him susceptible to over-heating, causing distress and discomfort, and risking serious harm.

Friends of the Earth’s lawyers argued this week that the current NAP breaches the Climate Change Act and the human rights of Paulley and Jordan, and that marginalised groups – including older and disabled people – are disproportionately affected by the impacts of the climate crisis.

They also argue that the government failed to properly assess the equality impacts of its adaptation plans.

Jordan said before the hearing: “I was told my house would be safe for a century, but 14 years after moving in it had to be demolished due to the accelerating rate of coastal erosion.

“The government’s adaptation plans are completely inadequate for dealing with the threat that climate change [poses] to people and the economy.

“The National Adaptation Programme should be ripped up and replaced with a new plan that better protects us all from the escalating impacts of the climate crisis.”

Last week, the statutory Climate Change Committee, which advises the UK and devolved governments, called on ministers in the new government to strengthen the NAP, having previously warned that it “falls far short of what is required” and that evidence of the UK’s “inadequate response to worsening climate impacts continues to mount”.

Friends of the Earth climate campaigner Alison Dilworth said this week: “Labour must deliver on its pre-election pledge to improve resilience and preparation by urgently drawing up a much tougher climate adaptation programme to prepare the UK for the enormous challenges of a dangerously warming planet, with those most affected involved in its planning.”

Rowan Smith, from solicitors Leigh Day, which is representing the claimants, said before the hearing: “For the first time in UK legal history, the high court will have to determine whether the government’s policy to adapt to climate change is lawful, including as to whether our clients’ human rights have been breached.

“This is a truly landmark climate change case, which is likely to have far reaching implications for generations to come.”

A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “The climate and nature crises are the greatest long-term global challenge we face as a nation.

“As we transition to become a clean energy economy and stride towards net zero, we must also take robust action to prepare for the impacts of a changing climate.

“This government will ensure that the UK is prepared for these changes by strengthening resilience across government and local communities.

“We will waste no time in delivering on this by improving the durability of our infrastructure, enhancing protections against flooding and planting millions of trees all while turbocharging green growth.”

He said the department could not comment further because of the ongoing court case.

Meanwhile, Paulley has praised early signs that access has improved for disabled people attending cases at the Royal Courts of Justice (RCJ) in London, where the hearing took place this week.

This compares with past “terrible experiences”, including disabled claimants being offered either a room with wheelchair access or a room with a working hearing loop, wheelchairs being taken apart by security, and assistance dogs being refused entry.

A group of disabled people had taken a legal case against RCJ, and it was settled out of court after a promise to improve access arrangements, which Paulley said it seemed to have done so far.

Picture: Protesters outside the Royal Courts of Justice on Tuesday, including Doug Paulley (centre, holding orange placard) and Kevin Jordan (next to Paulley, holding dark blue placard) 

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