Select committee: Transport Committee
Recommendation 25
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)
The case of e-scooters demonstrates the importance of ensuring that enforcement is not an afterthought when new elements are introduced into transport networks. Should the Government eventually seek to legislate for permanent e-scooter rental schemes or use of privately-owned e-scooters on public roads, it must not rely on saying that it is up to local authorities or police forces to use their powers to manage detrimental impacts on disabled people without proving that this can be effective. It must present evidence from the extensive rental trial schemes demonstrating that it is possible for operators and local authorities to manage such schemes in a way which does not further impair disabled people’s safe and confident access to the street environment. This may require the Government to make additional resources available for enforcement. (Recommendation, Paragraph 157)
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.