Recommendation 12

HM Government Accepted

Since its creation under the Transport Act 1985 the Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) has been a constant presence providing impartial expert advice to the Department on the passenger needs of disabled people. DPTAC plays a key role in advising the Department across all aspects of policy development and implementation, and in the last year has seen its membership refreshed and expanded with a new cohort of disability experts joining the Committee. Under the Transport Act 1985, so far as reasonably practicable, at least 50 per cent of DPTAC’s membership should be made up of people who identify as disabled making sure that lived experience, as well as professional or academic expertise, informs advice to the Department. DPTAC operates in an open and transparent manner, providing annual reports on its work to Parliament and publishes details of its membership and work on its dedicated website. How DPTAC publishes and disseminates the outputs of its work is ultimately a decision for that Committee. DPTAC provides advice on matters subject to policy development and the standard considerations in terms of handling officially sensitive information are applied by the Committee in line with the requirements of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 and the Information Commissioner’s Office guidelines. In the course of its interactions with DPTAC, the Department follows the recommendations of the Cabinet Office Functional Review of Bodies Providing Expert Advice to Government for expert committee’s including the provision of feedback to the Committee on how its advice has informed policy decisions. In support of the Select Committee’s desire to make sure that DPTAC’s advice is considered in an open and transparent manner, the Committee has agreed to further enhance its public reporting by publishing regular updates to its work programme alongside its main committee meeting minutes, with these meetings taking place no fewer than four times per year.