Select committee: Transport Committee
Conclusion 19
1st Report – Access denied: rights versus reality in disabled people's access to transport
Published 20 Mar 2025
Addressed to Department for Transport
Transport Committee Accessible transport: legal obligations All items in this report Report on parliament.uk ↗ Inquiry on parliament.uk ↗
Conclusion (the committee's words)
An unreasonable burden is currently placed on disabled people themselves in holding transport operators and authorities to account for fulfilling their duties. Legal action is rarely a practical option for most individuals, so it is especially important that complaints processes are made more accessible and effective. The user should not have to be an expert either in the law or in organisational structures across varied transport modes to know whether they have a valid complaint, to whom it should be addressed, how to contact that body and how to escalate the complaint if necessary. In the long term, there may be a case for rationalising the number of organisations who deal with transport accessibility complaints, but in the meantime, a unified ‘front of house’ service could make a meaningful difference to users. We note plans to establish a passenger standards authority in the rail sector, but this covers just one mode of transport and will not be an accessibility-specific body. (Conclusion, Paragraph 104) 77
From: Transport Committee, 1st Report – Access denied: rights versus reality in disabled people's access to transport (HC 770), 20 March 2025
Government response
The government responded to the whole report on 13 June 2025 (deadline 20 May 2025).
Summary written by Accountability Index from the government's response. It is not the government's own words.The Department accepts that its approach to accessibility can be improved and that transport accessibility legislation needs to be looked at again, but it declines a standalone Inclusive Transport Strategy.
- It does not adopt the recommended second standalone strategy, concluding that "on balance" accessibility is best incorporated within the forthcoming Integrated National Transport Strategy, to avoid it being treated as an "add-on".
- On the legislative review, it "accepts the need to look again" at the framework. It has approached the Law Commission, and the work is "subject to agreement with the Commission", with the exact timeline still to be confirmed.
- On rail, it intends to publish an Accessibility Roadmap "later this year". It says the Roadmap "will not provide an immediate solution" but will outline measures ahead of the establishment of Great British Railways.
- On accessible transport champions, it says it is not its remit to "impose specific personnel roles" on operators. On training, it agrees there is "merit in reviewing" packages across modes and will work with DPTAC to assess how this could be done in a timely manner.