Select committee: Transport Committee
Recommendation 21
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 ↗
Recommendation (the committee's words)
Users of such a service must receive assurance that information about complaints and failures is being aggregated and used proactively to improve systems and services, not just to effect redress to the individual. In order to achieve this, the Department should: • analyse information gathered through this mechanism both to hold operators to account for resolving specific problems promptly, and to enable systemic issues and trends to be identified and addressed; and • report quarterly on what issues have been resolved and services improved as a result. (Recommendation, Paragraph 106)
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.