Select committee: Transport Committee
Recommendation 29
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 Department should within 12 months review the roles of enforcement bodies with responsibilities for transport accessibility and prepare to legislate where necessary: • to ensure that all have consistent and sufficient powers at their disposal, and have both the powers and resources needed to intervene formally at lower thresholds than is currently the case; • to assess whether such bodies should be given the power and resources to act on breaches of the Equality Act general duties and the Public Sector Equality Duty in matters within their remit, in order to facilitate swifter resolution of breaches and take some of the burden of legal action away from individuals; • to ensure that no transport mode, including the street environment, is left uncovered by an effective enforcement regime; and • to assess whether a single body with responsibility for enforcement across transport modes would be more effective at asserting the rights of disabled travellers and bringing about systemic change. (Conclusion, Paragraph 167) 80
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.