 |
 |
Disability Discrimination (Amendment) Bill [HL] (2002) Annotated Konur, O. (2002) Disability Discrimination (Amendment) Bill [HL] (2002) Annotated, HL Bill 40, 8 January 2002, First Reading, House of Lords, version 1, 13 January 2002, 25,000 words, (London, City University). [On-line] http://www.student.city.ac.uk/~cx639/ddab40.htm (Original source, http://www.parliament.uk accessed on 10 January 2002) Key words Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) (1995), Disability Discrimination (Amendment) Act (DDAA) (2002), Disability Discrimination (Amendment) Bill (HL) (DDAB) (2002)- HL HL Bill 40, meaning of disability, cancer, HIV (human immuno-deficiency virus), associations, Human Rights Act (1998), police officers, statutory office holders, small business exemptions, enforcement, compensation, re-instatement orders, re-engagement orders, employment tribunals, premises, facilities, services, questionnaire procedures, consultations, public authorities, equal opportunities, Disability Rights Commission, Disability Rights Commission Act (DRCA) (1999), Special Educational Needs and Disability Act (SENDA) (2002). Copyright: Ozcan Konur, 2002 Crown Copyright legislation is reproduced under the terms of Crown Copyright Policy Guidance issued by HMSO. [HMSO Guidance Notes Reproduction of United Kingdom, England, Wales and Northern Ireland Primary and Secondary Legislation, Number: 6 Date: 27 October 1999 (Revised 6 November 2000), http://www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/g-note6.htm] Executive Summary The Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) (1995) was enacted on 8 November 1995 and has been in force in part since 2 December 1996. 2 December 2001 saw the end of its implementation for the first half a decade. As we enter the second half a decade of its implementation, Disability Discrimination (Amendment) Bill (HL Bill 40, 8 January 2002) appeared in the Parliamentary records on 8 January 2002. A preliminary search of the electronic newspaper databases as well as an Internet search using a search engine as of 10 January 2002 did not reveal any substantial information in the public domain on this new Bill. This is surprising since the close reading of the Bill suggests relatively substantial changes to the Part I, Part II, Part III, Part VII, Part III of the DDA (1995) as well as the Section 7 of the Disability Rights Commission Act (DRCA) (1999). Therefore this web site was established to publish the annotated version of the HL Bill 40 on 13 January 2002 in a timely manner in 17,500 words corresponding to the Bill in 5,100 words with a total of 25,000 words at http://www.student.city.ac.uk/~cx639/ddab40.htm as a part of the Research Project Web Site on Disability and Higher Education which has had a web site at http://www.student.city.ac.uk/~cx639/index.htm since June 1999. It was prepared as a part of the research stream of the Research Project on Disability Law and Policy, complementing the academic output of the Research Project. It aims to inform the members of the public about this Bill rather than providing a detailed interpretive study of the Bill. The research on the DDA as well as this Bill is in-progress. Please visit the research project web site, http://www.student.city.ac.uk/~cx639/index.htm for a list of the research output from this project with the full text links to them where it is possible. This project site also increasingly includes the legal resources on the Special Educational Needs Act (SENDA) (2001), Disability Discrimination Act (1995) as well as other legal resources (in the near future). It has been cited many times by both the Employment Appeal Tribunal and Court of Appeal that the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) has been a relatively 'complex' and therefore 'inaccessible' piece of legislation. It is notable that no Guidance Notes in the form of the 'Explanatory Notes' on the Bill was found in the public domain in the contrary to a general rule that every bill is accompanied by such guidance notes which helps the bills accessible to the wider public. It is possible that the Bill may be found as an 'inaccessible piece of bills. Bearing in mind these technical accessibility issues, the contents of the Bill were re-arranged following the general structure of the DDA (1995) itself. For each section of the DDA, which the Bill updates, separate entries were established as arranged under the relevant Parts of the DDA starting with the Section 1 of the DDA till Section 64 of the DDA (1995). The Section 7 of the DRCA (1999) is added at the end of this section. Each section has a number of entries: references, amended version of the Sections, Notes on the current version of the Sections and notes on the Amendments sought by the Bill. Finally the full text of the Bill was reproduced at the end of the document for information and archive purposes. For accessibility purposes an accessible summary of the annotated Bill in 900 words was produced below following the similar DDA structure, rather than the Bill structure of the arrangement. The HTML structure of the document would enable the relatively easy navigation across document. The list of contents is also produced for such purposes. Part 1 (Meaning of Disability) Short route to the disability tests for people with cancer or HIV The people with cancer (provided there is a requirement for substantial treatment) and HIV are deemed to be disabled by short-changing the last there prongs of the Section 1 of the Act once a medical diagnosis was made to confirm that there is an 'impairment' within the meaning of the Act (DDA Schedule 1(7)- HL Bill 40- Clause 1). This amendment affects access to employment, services (and facilities, goods, and premises), and education (both school and post-school education) by disabled people. Part II (Access to employment by disabled people) End to the small business employment exemptions Small business employer exemptions from the provisions of the Part II of the Act would be removed with the effect that disabled people would be able to file disability claims before the tribunals against their employers with or less than 15 employees, including the divisions of the large companies (DDA Section 7- HL Bill 40- Clause 5). This amendment affects access to employment by disabled people. New powers for the tribunals to make 're-instatement' or 're-engagement' orders against employers The Tribunals would have powers to make 're-instatement orders' or at the absence of such orders the 're-engagement orders' taking into consideration of the disabled applicants' wishes, the practicality and justness of making such orders as well as making compensatory awards for the non-compliance with such orders to compensate for any loss suffered by the disabled applicants. (DDA- Section 8- HL Bill 40- Clause 6). This amendment affects access to employment by disabled people. Part III (access to services, goods and facilities) Subpart: Goods, Facilities, and services Extension of the Sections 19, 20, and 21 to associations, transport services, and public authorities The rights and duties imposed by the Sections 19, 20, and 21 as regards to access to services provided by the service providers are extended to the membership services provided by the associations with or more than 25 members (DDA Sections 19, 20, 21-Clause 2, HL Bill 40, 8 January 2002); to the transport services (DDA Sections 19, 20, 21- Clause 7, HL Bill 40, 8 January 2002); to the services provided by the public authorities (DDA Sections 19, 20, 21- Clause 8, HL Bill 40, 8 January 2002). These amendments affect disabled people with access needs to associations, transport services and public authorities as well as these service providers. Subpart: Premises Reasonable adjustment duties for the leaseholders and rights of disabled tenants to make alterations to premises The leaseholders would have 'reasonable adjustment' duties to make reasonable adjustments to their 'practice, policy, or procedure' (Clause 11, 'Reasonable adjustments to premises'- Section 22, 'Discrimination in relation to premises'). The failure to comply with such Section 22(A) duty would form a second component of the discrimination tests (DDA Section 24, 'Meaning of 'discrimination''- HL Bill 40, Clause 10, ' Meaning of discrimination in Section 22 of the 1995 Act). The disabled tenants would be able to make alterations to the premises with the written consent of the leaseholders where the matter could be referred to the county or sheriff courts (DDA, Section 23, 'Exemptions for small dwellings'- HL Bill 40, Clause 12, 'Leasehold premises: alterations'). Subpart: Enforcements etc. Change to employment tribunals from sheriff or county courts; tribunal powers to recommend actions The disabled applicants should bring their DDA Part III claims before an employment tribunal not the county or sheriff courts as previously within the six months of the acts they complain of (8 months if they were advised by statutory bodies under the Section 28 of the DDA). Tribunals would have powers to make declarations on the applicants' rights, to award compensatory monetary towards including awards for 'injury to feelings' and to recommend actions suitable for the respondents to take; to increase the compensatory awards in the case of non-compliance with such recommendations (or refer to the county or sheriff courts to impose injunctions or interdicts) as well as to award interest on the compensatory awards (DDA Section 25, 'Enforcement, remedies, and procedure'- HL Bill 40, Clause 14, 'Enforcement'). DDA (1995) Part VII Supplemental Duties of Secretary of State to promote disability equality and he DRC's compliance notices and codes of practices The Secretary of State would have duties to promote disability equality. The Disability Rights Commission would prepare codes of practices to promote disability equality and would issue the compliance notices and would enforce them in the county or sheriff courts. (DDA Section 53 Code of practice prepared by the Secretary of State, HL Bill 40, Clause 9-General duty to promote equal opportunities for disabled people). DDA (1995) Part VIII Miscellaneous Extension of the DDA Part II to statutory police officers (and statutory officers in the Armed Forces, prisons and fire-fighting services?) The police officers (and Statutory office holders in the Armed Forces, Prisons, and Fire-fighting services?) would be able to bring the DDA Part II (employment) claims before the Tribunals (DDA Section 64 Application to Crown etc.- HL Bill 40, Clause 4) Disability Rights Commission Act (1999) Extension of the Disability Rights commission's assistance to Human Rights Act (1998) claims The disabled applicants would be able to ask for assistance from the Disability Rights Commission to add a HRA claim in addition to their DDA (Part II or Part III) claims (Disability Rights Commission Act (1999) Section 7, 'Assistance in relation to proceedings'- HL Bill 40, Clause 3, 'Power to take proceedings under the Human Rights Act 1998) ________________________________ Ozcan KONUR Postal address: Rehabilitation Resource Centre (Walmsley Building Room W223), City University, Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB, The United Kingdom. E-mail: [log in to unmask] Research project URL: http://www.student.city.ac.uk/~cx639/index.htm Phone: 020 7040 0271 ________________________________ Ozcan KONUR Postal address: Rehabilitation Resource Centre (Walmsley Building Room W223), City University, Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB, The United Kingdom. E-mail: [log in to unmask] Research project URL: http://www.student.city.ac.uk/~cx639/index.htm Phone: 020 7040 0271 _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp.