PARLIAMENTARY DEBATE
Disability History Month - 12 December 2024 (Commons/Westminster Hall)

I beg to move,

That this House has considered Disability History Month.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Mark, and I am grateful to the members of the Backbench Business Committee for allowing time for this important and timely debate.

As a disabled woman and mother to a disabled daughter, I feel real personal pride in leading this debate, and I am grateful to other hon. Members who have turned up to take part. It is an opportunity to reflect on the important place that disability and disabled people have in our history, to raise awareness of the ongoing challenges that people living with a disability face, and to look forward to continuing to build a truly inclusive society.

Disability History Month is a chance to celebrate our achievements to make the UK more inclusive to disabled people. A huge amount has already been achieved since the end of world war two, when over 300,000 servicemen and women came home disabled. That homecoming exposed huge numbers of people in Britain to the realities of life with a disability, acting as a catalyst for an important change in attitudes towards disabled people. The country saw changes to the law to improve disabled people’s standards of living and work. The Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944 promised sheltered employment, reserved occupations and employment quotas for disabled people. Initiatives to restore the fitness and morale of disabled servicemen and women spread to the rest of the disabled population. The NHS extended rehabilitation services to workers disabled by industrial accidents, for example.

Many disability rights charities formed in the 1940s and 1950s, and in 1951 a new social movement was started by a silent reproach march of 800 disabled ex-servicemen walking to Downing Street. The civil rights movement in America inspired disabled groups to take direct action against discrimination, poor access and inequality. A social, rather than medical, model of disability emerged.

In the years since, we have seen increased understanding of disabled people’s experiences: the Chronically Sick and Disabled Persons Act 1970—the first in the world to recognise and give rights to disabled people—created support services and specialist educational facilities for disabled people, and introduced the blue badge scheme; 1995 saw the implementation of the Disability Discrimination Act, which made it unlawful to discriminate against disabled people in employment, the provision of goods or services, education, and transport; and the Equality Act 2010, passed under the last Labour Government, made disability a protected characteristic in law, strengthening the measures in the 1995 Act, and safeguarding disabled people from direct and indirect discrimination.

Disabled campaigners who refused to accept a status quo where their experiences and lives were valued less than others in society were at the heart of those changes, as they are at the heart of calls for change today. I want to mention just one of these campaigners. Ruth Bashall, who passed away earlier this year, co-founded the Campaign for Accessible Transport in 1989, taking part in direct action protests that saw wheelchair users block central London streets. Ruth also set up Stay Safe East, a user-led organisation dedicated to tackling abuse against disabled people from diverse communities. Today the group provides advice and advocacy for victims of violence and harassment while working to improve the knowledge and practices of the police, health professionals and others as they interact with disabled people.

If we are to honour that work, we must listen to organisations like Stay Safe East when they tell us what changes are needed to ensure that disabled people can access the opportunities for self-empowerment and self-agency that we all want. We must also listen to the new generation of activists, including the young people I met last week at an event in Parliament organised by Scope, who were sharing the challenges they have faced. Storytellers like them will be a key part of the journey to equality—because it is a journey, and it is one that we are still on.

On average, one in three disabled people say that the UK is a worse place to live now than it was a decade ago. Discrimination and stigma have not gone away, with three out of four disabled people having experienced negative attitudes or behaviour in the past five years. Disabled children are too frequently deprived of the life chances that they deserve, with a special educational needs and disabilities system that is broken after 14 years of neglect.

The theme of this year’s Disability History Month is livelihood and employment, an area that sadly illustrates those ongoing barriers well. The disability employment gap has sat stubbornly at around 30% for over a decade, and behind every statistic is an individual denied the independence and security that comes with a job. According to research by Scope, more than a million disabled people want to work, but poor employer attitudes, insufficient employment support programmes and a lack of flexibility and adjustments at work make it impossible. Two thirds of disabled people said that the most common issue when applying for jobs was a fear of disclosing disability. Disabled people who are supported into work are more likely to find themselves in lower-paid roles or on a zero-hours contract.

The disability pay gap stands at around 17%, which equates to a disabled person working on average unpaid for 54 days a year. This exclusion and discrimination in employment has devastating knock-on effects for a disabled person’s livelihood and wellbeing. We know the benefits that good employment brings—better incomes, financial stability, security and a greater sense of purpose—whereas disabled people who are out of employment suffer from high levels of anxiety and lower rates of personal wellbeing. The bottom line is the financial impact, as disabled households need on average an additional £1,010 a month to have the same standard of living as non-disabled households.

All that is against the backdrop of the number of vacancies in the UK, which stands at around 831,000. By failing to recruit disabled people and support disabled employees to stay in their jobs, employers are missing out on a wealth of talent and the benefits of a diverse workforce. I will look at some of the causes of that gap, because this is an untenable situation.

In 2023, the all-party group on eye health and visual impairment commissioned YouGov to carry out polling to look at employer attitudes towards partially sighted or blind people. The polling found that 48% of employers said that they did not have accessible recruitment processes and, more shockingly, around a quarter said that they would not be willing to make workplace adjustments to employ someone who was blind or partially sighted. One of the recommendations that the APPG published as part of its report following the poll was that the Government should review the Equality Act to ensure that it is fit for the modern labour market and that employers comply with their existing obligations under the Act. I would welcome the Minister’s views on how he can work to make that happen, taking into account the views and voices of disabled people.

With proper support, disabled people can thrive in the workplace. Organisations across the country demonstrate that, doing fantastic work to support disabled people to fulfil their career ambitions and potential. Last week, I met Charlie, who has experienced sight loss since birth and found employment through Scope’s support to work service. He spoke about how the employment adviser encouraged him to talk about his disability as a positive factor at interview, building his confidence to apply for jobs. He has now been in work for five years.

The WorkFit scheme run by the Down’s Syndrome Association promotes the skills and abilities of people who have Down’s syndrome, focusing on the positive contribution that they can make in the workplace. It is guided by the belief that in the right job and with the right support, everyone is able to work. By engaging directly with employers and candidates to provide training and advice, the scheme has supported 1,000 candidates into employment with more than 750 employers. The scheme has created lasting change, with nine out of 10 people in paid work through WorkFit retaining their job.

In my constituency, Thurrock Lifestyle Solutions is an excellent example of good practice in helping disabled people to enter and stay in the workplace. It is particularly successful because it embodies the maxim, “Nothing about us without us”; it is run, led and designed by disabled people themselves. That maxim must guide Government policy on disability.

For too long, disabled people have been sidelined in the policymaking process. They have been denied a voice while successive policy agendas on areas such as employment, education and transport have ignored their needs and left them to suffer the consequences as a result. I am encouraged by the steps that this Labour Government are taking to put disabled voices at the heart of decision making. I know that the Minister is deeply engaged with these issues, and I thank him for his commitment.

The creation of a disability lead in every Department is a very welcome step. This recognises the need to look at the experiences of disabled people through a cross-Government approach to truly understand the full societal impact of living with a disability. Can the Minister confirm whether the Government will continue engaging and working alongside disabled individuals, campaigners and charities as they seek to drive reform? And is he able to give further details on the roles and responsibilities of the departmental disability leads?

I also welcome the Government’s White Paper, “Getting Britain Working”, and particularly the pledge to put disabled people at the heart of design and delivery. I look forward to the review of the role of employers in promoting health and inclusive workplaces, to support the recruitment and retention of those with a disability.

There is an important recognition in the White Paper that the current system focuses on assessing capacity to work, rather than helping people to adapt to their health condition. The White Paper also acknowledges that too many people who would like to work are held back by the fear of losing social security payments, if they end up needing them again in the future. I hope the Minister will assure me today that that will not be forgotten. Disabled people need to know that support will be there when they need it, and that if, for whatever reason, having tried employment they find that a particular workplace does not work out, they will not lose their financial benefits as a result.

Will the Minister reassure me that the Green Paper, due to be published next spring, will not see a return to punitive measures or an assessment system so restrictive that it is, in fact, punitive? To truly deliver the huge shift necessary to see more disabled people in secure employment, we must look at these issues in the round. That starts with fixing the broken SEND system for our children, and it will take a sustained, long-term focus on the experiences of disabled children and their families to deliver an education system that meets the needs of every child. The extra £740 million of investment to increase places for pupils with SEND in mainstream schools is a significant step, because in education, employment and across Government, policy that gets it right for disabled people gets it right for everyone.

Progress has been made, and we should celebrate that and reflect with gratitude on the work of disabled campaigners who have brought us so far. However, there is still so much to be done, not only in the realms of employment and livelihood, but in accessible transport, accessible public, social and sports spaces, and ensuring that there is no place in society that disabled people are not able to rightly play their part. I have one final question to the Minister: when he chairs the meetings of the Government’s disability leads, will he work to ensure that the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, the Department for Transport, the Department for Business and Trade, and the Office for Equality and Opportunity are all working together to speed up progress in order to make the UK a truly inclusive place for the millions of disabled people who live here?

I remind Members that they need to bob, as some of you are, if they wish to be called in the debate.

I thank the hon. Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) for setting the scene so well on a subject that we all engage with every day in our constituencies. I believe, as I think we all do, that we should encourage those who wish to work, and might not have had the opportunity, to do so. This debate is an opportunity to highlight this issue, raise awareness and encourage my constituents back home. I always try to give a Northern Ireland perspective to debates relating to the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. This is that sort of debate and hopefully the Minister will answer some of our questions.

The most recent census was in 2021—indeed, this is the season to talk about the census after all. It showed that one person in four in Northern Ireland——24.3%, or some 463,000 people—had a limiting long-term health problem or disability. Forty per cent of those, or some 185,300 people, were aged 65 or over. Statistics and figures sometimes go over our heads, but if we think of those 185,300 people, that is also 185,300 families, and that impact on a population of 1.9 million in Northern Ireland is great.

It was also interesting to note that the number of people with a limiting long-term health problem or disability increased from the 2011 census to the 2021 census. Unfortunately, this shows a worrying trend. The 23.6% increase from 374,600 people in 2011 to 463,000 people in 2021 is notable and the response to it must be, too. I will ask a question to the Minister that I always ask: has he had an opportunity yet—he is in a new role as Minister—to discuss these matters with the appropriate Minister back home in the Northern Ireland Assembly? We need to ensure that we co-operate better and that our policies, strategy and response are co-ordinated right across the whole United Kingdom.

Ards and North Down borough council in my local area recently had a motion to ensure that signage was visible in council facilities to remind people that not every disability is visible. I have seen on the tube whenever I travel here that, as well as seats for disabled people, there is always a wee poster that says, “Not every disability is visible”. In this age when everybody is hustling and bustling and rushing, it is interesting to see how many times people will give up their seat maybe unknowingly to someone who has a disability. Their pride sometimes prevents them from taking the seat, but the fact is that people are kind. In this fast world we live in, it is always good to remind ourselves that people do reach out and help. It is important that we do so.

I thank my local council for its motion and for ensuring that awareness is raised. I believe that has, in its own small way, had a real impact and changed the conversation around disability. The hon. Member for Thurrock is right that we need a change in the conversation. We want people to think and talk about this issue, so she deserves a lot of credit for bringing this matter forward. We must try to teach people to understand that while a person may seem healthy at first glance, they may also be someone who needs a little more help or assistance. Anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder crops up across my constituency all the time. Understanding that will help us to understand why the numbers are not what we expect. We need to ensure that every disability is acknowledged, and we must do all we can to ensure that every disabled person is heard.

This debate was in my mind during a debate we had the other day that was not specifically about this issue. We need to think about our veterans, some of whom have lost limbs, whether legs or arms, or have had terrific internal injuries. Through the Invictus games and the Paralympics, those with disabilities have been able to shine, and that should inspire us all. It should probably also humble us when we think of what those people can do with their disability. For me and for others in the House, the Invictus games and the Paralympics have become something we want to see even more, with great respect to those who are able-bodied. It is really important that we see the achievements they can reach.

I believe this is the main drive behind Disability History Month. We see where we started off, by removing the workhouses and those institutions. As the hon. Member for Thurrock said, we saw soldiers returning from war who could do more with more help. We acknowledged that there was a functioning place in society for these individuals, and the real discovery was that our society is the better for inclusivity.

I want to mention one last point about children. I have six grandchildren. Three of them have speech issues and require therapy. One of them is non-verbal, which is another disability in our children. The hon. Member for Thurrock referred to children, and it is important that we have the institutions in place, although this is a debate about disabilities, not SEND education, so I will focus on disabilities. As I say, one of my grandchildren is non-verbal, but he and children like him still have a smile and an interest in what happens around them. Education is very important to help those children to achieve their goals in life.

I have seen at first hand how many steps can be taken forward under the expert help and support that is available. The question for us in this place is this: is there enough help and support available for the massive spectrum of disability? My wife is obviously a very wise lady and a very sensible lady, given that she married me; she has been even more sensible to stay with me. She refers to disability as “difability”—a different kind of ability.

We can do more to support parents and help them to unlock their children’s potential; to ensure that mainstream schools have the capacity and finance to be a safe and engaging place to learn, with no child left behind; to help people into the workforce by supporting them and helping workplaces to afford the changes they need to make to become “difability” friendly; and to ensure that families can afford what they need and can grow. Lastly, we can do more with our ageing population, to ensure that they have the enhanced support and care required to remain at home for as long as they wish.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) for securing this debate, during which we can reflect on the treatment of disabled people in the past and on how we can learn from the experiences of our constituents to shape a better future.

As we focus on this year’s theme of disability, livelihood and employment, the optimists among us like to think that the arc of history tends towards progress. We have heard about the important 1944 and 1970 Acts, and the fact that 2010 was a landmark year in disability history, with the introduction of the Equality Act. Prohibiting discrimination against disabled people, the Equality Act is still one of the most progressive and long-standing legacies of the previous Labour Government.

Unfortunately, in 2024, after 14 years of Conservative Government, it feels like we are going backwards. In March this year, the UN’s Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities found that we have a system that “devalues” disabled people and that which results in

“hate speech and hostility”

towards them. A fragmented and inaccessible system that undermines human dignity is not one that this Labour Government stand for.

Today the disability employment gap—the difference in the employment rates for disabled people and non-disabled people—stands at around 25 percentage points in West Bromwich. That is slightly less than the national average, but it is still far too large, which is why I am pleased that the Government are addressing this disparity and listening to disabled people regarding how to do that.

It is clear that the employment support system for disabled people is not working properly, which is why the Government’s recent White Paper has a focus on enabling disabled people to find long-term work and, as my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock said, well-paid work that they can thrive in. I am glad that the Government are investing £115 million next year to deliver Connect to Work, a new supported employment programme to match disabled people with job vacancies. It is hoped that from 2026 onwards the programme will support nearly 100,000 people a year. I can think of many very qualified disabled people in my constituency who do not have the jobs that they deserve and would do well in.

In the Budget, the Government also addressed an issue that affects many disabled people: the carer’s allowance. The previous cap was trapping people in poverty and penalising them like criminals for earning just a few pounds over the threshold. We have raised the earning limit on carer’s allowance, meaning that it is easier for people who are caring for loved ones, many of whom are disabled, to go out and work. We should be clear, though, about the scale of the challenge that many disabled people come up against when looking for work, or just going about their daily lives, whether it is the social barriers presented by other people’s perceptions of their disability or the physical barriers presented by public transport, as my hon. Friend mentioned.

Disabled people are more likely to rely on buses to get around, but unfortunately our bus system is just not good enough. The new Government are doing something about that, and I hope the Minister will say more about that in his response to the debate. Unfortunately, the 45 bus service from West Brom to Walsall, which I campaigned to save, is still so unreliable that it often leaves passengers stranded or forces them to abandon their journeys; the loss of the 46 bus means that elderly and disabled people on Old Walsall Road now have to navigate an enormous hill; and the fact that there are no direct buses to the train station from Oakham means that many residents find it hard to work further afield, go shopping in the city centre or take part in sport.

I will touch on sport, as other Members have, because it is worth mentioning areas where progress has been made. Of course, we have a long way to go to make sure that all sport is accessible, but I will pay tribute to a few people in my area. In West Brom, we are proud that our local football club is famous up and down the land, but there is one part of the club that is not so widely known. West Bromwich Albion are the reigning champions of at least one league—the national league premiership for powerchair football. Their goalkeeper and player-manager Chris Gordon, who has spinal muscular atrophy, has a career and livelihood that is centred on sport—not despite his disability but because of it.

Another local champion of sporting opportunities for people with disabilities and learning disabilities was Norma Hyde from neighbouring Halesowen. In 1983 she set up Special Olympics Sandwell, for which this year she was rightly recognised in the King’s birthday honours list.

Finally, Blind Dave Heeley—as he calls himself—is a local legend in West Brom. Having lost his sight at a young age, he committed himself to fundraising through sport. He recently cycled 1,000 km along the western front in Europe, and once did seven marathons in seven days on seven continents, becoming the first and only blind person in the world to achieve this. In the process, he raised millions of pounds.

Of course, not every disabled person needs to be inspiring, run marathons or be at the top of the league to deserve fulfilling employment, a decent livelihood and access to transport. As parliamentarians, we must put the views and voices of disabled people at the heart of what we do and work towards a future that is truly inclusive for everyone.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark, and to contribute to this important debate, which I thank the hon. Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) for securing. She made many important points, some of which I will also mention.

As has already been said, the theme of this year’s UK Disability History Month is disability, livelihood and employment. My interest in this issue has its foundations in losing 70% of my hearing from bacterial meningitis when I was aged 19. Ironically, being the Member of Parliament for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton is the first job in which I feel my disability has been a positive advantage, giving me a platform from which to advocate for others. My niece was born with spinal muscular atrophy, giving me a window into the experience of more acute disability in the workplace and the challenges she faces on a daily basis.

In 1995 it was a Conservative Government, under John Major, who delivered the first UK legislation to protect disabled people from various forms of discrimination. In the last 30 years, new protections have improved the work situation of disabled people. A good example is the Access to Work programme, which, if implemented and understood properly by business, can remove some of the barriers that employers may perceive in taking on a disabled employee.

Many disabled people are eager to work and contribute, but face significant barriers in understanding which opportunities are truly accessible to them. While there is a lot of emphasis on getting disabled people into further education, that same support is not prevalent beyond university. Many disabled people want to work, contribute to society, pay taxes and have a work routine that makes them feel valued. Time should be taken to understand not only what is possible but what an individual aspires to achieve.

Managing a disability can feel like a full-time job in itself. To enable disabled people to contribute to our society through work, we need systems that offer flexibility, and that safeguard benefits and allow individuals to take on work without jeopardising their health or their financial stability. A manager saying, “Tell me what you need and I will do it” is a great start, but the reality is that in a new job there are so many unknowns. For those with additional access needs, what is needed can be hard to define at the outset, without prior knowledge of exactly what the job entails. People’s needs can vary widely, depending on the disability.

There is an opportunity to create transformational change quickly. If we increase the prevalence of access co-ordinators, they can provide an interface between businesses, line managers and disabled employees and jobseekers. Their role is to implement best practice from other organisations and identify the help that is available. By supporting a disabled employee’s career progression—which can be even more challenging with geographic and access constraints—they can help to deliver the autonomy and flexibility that works for both employer and employee, ultimately ensuring that disabled employees have access to a career, not just a job.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Mark. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) on securing this debate. Derby has the largest number of deaf people outside of London, which I am sure is in no small part because we are privileged to have the Royal School for the Deaf Derby. This specialist school was founded in 1894 by Dr William Roe, after he witnessed a young deaf man being bullied and called “Dumb Jack”. Dr Roe was struck by the social and educational exclusion of deaf people, and this Disability History Month I pay tribute to him and the school that he created.

There is no doubt that attitudes across society towards people who are deaf or have hearing loss have come a long way. The country was mesmerised when Rose Ayling-Ellis waltzed her way to lifting the glitterball trophy on “Strictly Come Dancing”, providing an overdue weekly prime-time lesson on deaf awareness and deaf culture for the nation. Films such as “The Silent Child” and “CODA” have not just showcased the rich talent that exists within the deaf community, but used stories and humour to give wider society an insight into the deaf existence and the barriers that people face on a daily basis.

The media representation of the deaf community has certainly, and rightfully, grown in recent years, whether through deaf participation in “Love Island”, “Bake Off”, or “Married at First Sight”, or simple acts of inclusion in everyday interactions, but people who are deaf or have hearing loss are still marginalised in society, and there is still so much to do to provide the community with the life chances they deserve.

Children and young people from across our country attend the Royal School for the Deaf Derby, which offers both day and residential specialist education. Last week, the Ofsted inspection on its residential provision was published, grading it as outstanding in all areas; I invite the Minister, if I may, to join me in congratulating the school. The school is also the largest employer in the midlands for deaf BSL users, who are incredible role models for their pupils, and provides training and development to partner agencies in Derbyshire and Derby. One example mentioned in the Ofsted report was a firefighter that the school had trained, who was able to use sign language in an emergency, providing support and reassurance to an individual involved in a road traffic collision.

I have seen art by the school’s pupils that was shown an exhibition alongside work by renowned deaf photographer Stephen Iliffe at the Artcore gallery in Derby, celebrating the achievements of the deaf community, highlighting the diverse experiences in careers of deaf people, and demonstrating that, with the right support, there are no limits to what they can accomplish.

However, we know that our wider education system across the country far too frequently fails our children and young people. The attainment gap facing deaf pupils is equivalent to 12 months of learning by the end of primary school, and, at GCSE, deaf students perform more than a whole grade worse than their non-deaf peers in both English and maths. People who are deaf or have hearing loss are also penalised in the labour market. Less than four in 10 working-age people who use BSL as their first language are in employment. A third of that group are classified as long-term economically inactive—a total waste of their talents and ability. That point was made powerfully by my hon. Friends the Members for Thurrock and for West Bromwich (Sarah Coombes).

Sadly, there are also far too many examples where the NHS is not doing enough to provide appropriate access. Two in three people who use BSL as their first language have no accessible method of contacting their GP, and four in five patients who are deaf or have hearing loss reported having an appointment at which their communication needs were unmet. Deaf people also suffer worse outcomes for physical and mental health than their peers. These are public policy failures, and as MPs and decision makers in Westminster, we need to take action to fix them.

There are many brilliant charities providing evidence and expertise to feed into that work. We recently had four of them—the British Deaf Association, the National Deaf Children’s Society, the Royal National Institute for Deaf People and SignHealth—in Parliament, at an event that I hosted and at which we were honoured to have the Minister attend and speak. Charities can act as a bridge to their communities, helping to facilitate policy- makers to learn directly from the lived experience of the communities themselves.

The work that we need to do in Westminster to support the deaf community cuts across Government, and we need action from all Government Departments—Health, Education, Transport, the Home Office, Business and Trade, Work and Pensions and others. I thank the Minister for and congratulate him on the positive step forward that we have seen with the appointment of lead Ministers in each Department to champion disability inclusion and accessibility. In his cross-Government role, I am sure that he will passionately drive the policies that we need to see in the lives of deaf and disabled people, so that they can thrive and we can all benefit from the full use of their talents and skills.

May I begin by congratulating the hon. Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) on securing the debate and leading it with such a wealth of knowledge and experience? I think we all benefited greatly from her presentation. This is a slightly unusual debate, because it is the first one that I can recall in recent times when the splendid hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) was the first Back Bencher to be called; that is a little bit of an in-joke, but most people familiar with his wonderful but very frequent contributions will understand what I mean.

I was encouraged to take part in this debate by the fine example of the hon. Member for Battersea (Marsha De Cordova), who chairs the APPG on eye health and visual impairment. I know she is very disappointed that she cannot be here today, but I understand that there is a visitation in her constituency of the sort that no MP can refuse to attend. I should like to record my gratitude to her pleasant and dedicated team for supplying me with some very helpful information, which I now intend to deploy. According to the charity Scope, there are well over 16,000 people living with a disability in my constituency of New Forest East, and I should like to say a few words to honour their efforts to work and live well despite the challenges that they face.

Disability History Month is now an annual event celebrating the history, contributions and struggles of disabled people. A motion that marked the first Disability History Month was tabled in the Commons in November 2010, signed by 79 hon. and right hon. Members, including the former Father of the House, Sir Peter Bottomley, and my late, great friend, Sir David Amess. Among other things, the motion called upon schools, colleges, universities, local authorities, employers, the public and the media to recognise and celebrate UK Disability History Month, and encouraged them to campaign to improve the then—and still, sadly—unequal position of disabled people in society by working towards greater equality and inclusion.

That cause has certainly been taken up by a good number of people and organisations. I am particularly lucky to have in my constituency the Minstead Trust, which works to support people with learning disabilities. It is no exaggeration to say that it is a jewel in the crown of the New Forest. I was very interested in some earlier comments by hon. Members about the importance of the work ethic for disabled people, because the Minstead Trust has acquired the wonderful Hanger Farm Arts Centre, which is a terrific facility with a tremendous programme of visiting artists and performers. It also gives work experience opportunities to the people who benefit directly from the trust, and is an outlet for some of the goods that they manufacture under the auspices of the trust. It is a terrific facility for the community as well, so there are big wins all around from that wonderful project—long may it continue.

The Minstead Trust also encourages workplaces to be inclusive in their recruitment practices, so that they can enjoy the benefits that people with learning disabilities can bring to the businesses that take them on. That is important because, as we have heard, this year’s UK Disability History Month theme is indeed livelihood and employment. We know that there are all types of benefits to working, including social benefits. Doing something that one enjoys can quell loneliness, create important social bonds and give one a sense of purpose. The benefits of including disabled people in our workplaces really are enormous.

There are many other realms, however, where inclusion could be better. The former Minister of State for the Department for Work and Pensions, my hon. Friend the Member for East Grinstead and Uckfield (Mims Davies), understood this. She led the disability champions work across Government, where each Department of State had one Minister who was a disability champion, with a personal commitment to championing accessibility and opportunity for disabled people within their Department’s policies. The ministerial disability champions met regularly to discuss plans, such as the disability action plan, as well as the impact of the high cost of living on disabled people. I am certainly pleased that the new Government are continuing in the same vein with their disability leads in each Department.

The same former Minister also recognised that some disabled people have significant extra costs relating to expensive equipment, home adaptations and so forth that they need in order to get by. The previous Conservative Government provided a substantial cost of living support package. Nevertheless, according to the charity Scope, the disability price tag—the extra money needed by a disabled household to have the same standard of living as a non-disabled household—in my constituency is well over £900.

We all know that it is not just extra financial costs that disabled people face. Almost three quarters of disabled people in my constituency are estimated to have experienced negative attitudes. Although a great many people in local schools, health providers, businesses and community centres are knowledgeable and respectful of the challenges facing the disabled community, it is also true that when we look at the national picture, outdated attitudes towards disabled people sometimes spill over into harassment and abuse. Disabled people are more likely to be the victims of crime and are twice as likely to experience harassment than non-disabled people. Disabled women are more than three times as likely to experience domestic abuse. I am sure that all hon. and right hon. Members are united on the need to end that, and I look forward to seeing what the Minister will do to work with his colleagues to ensure that the police and other services take a comprehensive and informed view when tackling abuse against disabled people.

It is not a simple subject. Victims of disability hate crime, discrimination, or sexual violence can have their experiences compounded by the double or triple discrimination that they face as women, as people of colour or for some other identifying factor, but there are charities led by disabled people who can provide expert advice and information about how better to support disabled people who are at risk of harm. I hope the Minister will say something about how his Government will work with such specialist charities.

I would like to pay personal tribute to those Members of Parliament who are living with disabilities. It was significant to hear my hon. Friend the Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Alison Griffiths) explain the extra burden, in addition to the normal burdens of being an assiduous Member of Parliament, her hearing loss has caused. I said at the beginning that I was encouraged to take part in this debate by the hon. Member for Battersea, who I regard as a personal friend. I find the way that she copes with her eye disability absolutely inspiring.

I speak from a little personal knowledge, because when I was an undergraduate I lost 18 months after a severe allergic reaction to some eyedrops, which prevented my being able to read. When one is a student at university that is a bit of a problem—

Order. We are running over and need to get other speakers in.

Sorry. I remember once, before I knew it would come right—as it finally did—walking past the Palace of Westminster and thinking ruefully, “To think I thought I would ever get to be a Member of Parliament!” I got over that problem, and I did get to be a Member of Parliament. I take off my hat to those MPs with far worse disabilities—permanent disabilities—who nevertheless have joined this place and contribute so much to its proceedings.

It is an honour to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. As many people know, I am an ear, nose, and throat surgeon, with a special interest in hearing loss and ear diseases. That has been my life’s work, so I declare a big interest in this subject.

Deafness and hearing loss are invisible disabilities, but they are common—very common. They affect 70% of people over the age of 70, and 40% of people over the age of 40. Hearing aids are free on the NHS, but millions of people who could benefit from them do not have one, and many people who do have one simply do not use it—perhaps up to 5 million people. Perhaps a million of our fellow citizens cannot hear conversational speech, with many unable to contact their GP or use health services. Many deaf people do not work because the adjustments that could and should be made for them are not made. Deaf awareness among employers is insufficient.

I will talk a little about earwax. Occluding earwax, which causes hearing loss and is also caused by hearing aid moulds, is a huge issue for deaf people. The services in this country to remove it are very patchy. Before I became an MP, I was the chair of a deaf association in East Anglia, a charity that helped thousands of deaf people and had contracts from the NHS to provide ear care and hearing aids. I believe that charity is a model of community-based, not-for-profit NHS ear care to the population that could be widely copied. The charity has mobile services for rural locations and can provide ear care in residential settings with one-stop provision of wax removal, audiology and hearing aids, keeping people communicating, connected and able to work.

I also commend the work of many excellent larger charities set up to help people with hearing loss, some of which were here in Parliament this week. The RNID estimates that the cost of hearing loss to the economy is £30 billion a year due to loss of earnings, reduced quality of life and increased social care costs. The solution to much of the problem is obvious: hearing aids must be just about the most useful disability aid ever invented. Let us do what we can in this Parliament to support our NHS audiology and hearing aid services. After all, most of us will need them one day.

Let us not ignore deafness when we talk about disability. I read about a young person with hearing loss who said:

“One of the worst things is when people say something I miss…they say ‘oh it doesn’t matter’. It probably didn’t matter to them at the time, but it makes me feel I don’t matter.”

I think that matters to all of us.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark.

I pay tribute to the hon. Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) for securing the debate. Her speech covered a lot of ground, and she paid warm tribute to campaigners in her constituency and beyond. She told the story, with great eloquence, of the journey that is still in progress on disability rights. I remember her speaking with passion about the subject in her maiden speech, too.

The hon. Lady also spoke of the need to promote equality of access, and cited examples of how positive change in the workplace can be achieved through the right supportive schemes. She and other Members also mentioned the importance of the links with education and transport, reminding us that this issue cuts across all aspects of government and society. She was right to call on the Government to focus on support and positive action rather than sanctions and punishment.

The hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) talked about the importance of supporting and encouraging people into work and gave the Northern Ireland context. He rightly reminded us that not all disabilities are visible. The hon. Member for West Bromwich (Sarah Coombes) spoke of the importance of support for carers and of high-quality transport to enable people to access society equally.

The hon. Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Alison Griffiths) was right to cite the then Conservative Government’s contribution in the Disability Discrimination Act 1995. Hopefully we can all work together across the House to continue to reduce, and ultimately end, discrimination against disabled people, including in the workplace.

We must do far more to tackle barriers to work, including by providing more support for employers to change the way they view disability. In the Liberal Democrats’ manifesto, we committed to make the benefits system work better for disabled people by giving them, and organisations that represent them, a stronger voice in the design of benefit policies and processes. We would like work capability assessments to be brought in-house and personal independence payment assessments to be reformed to make the process more transparent and stop unnecessary reassessments and the use of informal assessments. We would also like to empower more people to enter the job market, including parents, carers and disabled people themselves, by making more use of technology and new ways of working.

We welcome the Government’s long-term ambition to achieve an 80% employment rate, and a number of measures in their “Get Britain Working” White Paper published last month. Under the Conservative Government, the UK was the only economy to see its employment rate fall over the past five years, and they undermined apprenticeships, left mental health services not fit for purpose and ran our NHS into the ground.

We welcome the Government’s proposed steps to improve access to skills, training and education and to reduce shockingly high mental health care waiting lists. However, we call on them to go further. We would like to see regular mental health check-ups made available and new mental health hubs in all communities. We would like to see more done on providing better flexible working, given that 52% of carers who apply for it have their application refused. The Government should guarantee that apprentices are paid at least the national minimum wage by scrapping the lower apprentice rate. I also note that disability charities such as Disability Rights UK have some concern about the balance between positive, supportive measures, and potential sanctions and punishment, in forthcoming legislation.

We have heard from many hon. Members about the importance of local charities and about particular constituency circumstances. More than 12,000 households in my Oxfordshire constituency of Didcot and Wantage include at least one disabled person, which represents nearly 28% of all households in the constituency. Thankfully, local authorities and charities work together to help provide assistance. Oxfordshire county council runs a community support service—hosted in the towns of Wantage and Wallingford—with activities and services to help people stay healthy, independent and engaged. As the years have moved on, the service in Wantage has adapted to meet the changing social care needs of the area. Wantage market garden was created in the green space behind the service and is now looked after by the community action group Sustainable Wantage, in partnership with care provider Style Acre and the county council. Services like these are vital for the inclusion and support of disabled people.

We know that on average, disabled people take far fewer trips per year than non-disabled people, which is why, in addition to improving bus and rail services, community transport services such as Vale Community Impact, Cholsey Volunteers, Didcot Volunteer Drivers and Wallingford Volunteer Drivers, are such an important lifeline. I am proud that Oxfordshire county council has awarded over £100,000 of grants to those organisations. Most railway stations in my constituency have seen accessibility improvements in recent times, but Cholsey is the busiest that currently lacks them. I call on Network Rail, Great Western Railway and the Government to support an accessibility scheme at that station.

We have heard from the hon. Members for Derby North (Catherine Atkinson) and for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Peter Prinsley) about the importance of helping and supporting people with hearing loss. At the risk of oversharing, I am also afflicted by occasional earwax problems, so can certainly recognise that point. Perhaps I shall turn to the hon. Member for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket for advice on how to deal with that vexing problem.

In conclusion, we must do more to support those with additional needs. I hear regularly from my constituents that accessing the support they need through personal independence applications is challenging to say the least. We must support employers to make reasonable adjustments for employees through schemes like Access to Work and, as the hon. Member for Strangford said, support children with special educational needs so that they can thrive in their education. We must also provide more funding for CAMHS, the child and adolescent mental health services. I look forward to hearing what the Minister has to say.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Mark. I congratulate the hon. Member for Thurrock (Jen Craft) on securing this debate during Disability History Month. As someone with a disability herself, she will likely know that everyday life can be so much harder for those with a disability than for those of us fortunate to be able to take our health more or less for granted.

Before I was elected to Parliament, I had an inspirational colleague who had suffered a spinal injury that left her unable to walk. Our jobs were demanding—a 70-hour week was not uncommon—and somehow my colleague managed to do the work, and do it brilliantly, despite all the extra challenges of life in a wheelchair, including the difficulty of getting to and from work and navigating inaccessible buildings, and all the extra effort it takes to do the everyday things that so many of us do without thinking, like getting dressed or taking a shower. Working alongside her made me realise the importance of the things that we have done to help disabled people over the years, like making buildings and transport more accessible.

I also saw the consequences of people failing to give any thought to those needs: for example, by using disabled toilets as storage cupboards, or leaving them locked so that people have to go on a mission to find the key—a mission that is doubly hard for someone in a wheelchair. My colleague’s disability was obvious, but we should be sure to remember people whose disabilities are hidden and not to underestimate the difficulty that such disabilities can add to life. For instance, my hon. Friend the Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Alison Griffiths) said with great insight that in this job it is the first time her hearing loss has felt like an advantage as she uses her platform as an MP to advocate for others. She argued powerfully for disabled people to be able to access not just a job but a career.

Alongside talking about the challenges, this Disability History Month is a chance to reflect on pivotal moments of progress for disabled people and to celebrate the individual heroes who picked up the cause and made the running—metaphorically and sometimes in practice. If we cast our minds back, for instance, to summer 2012, right here in London the international bar was raised and a new standard was set for what disabled people could imagine achieving.

More than 4,000 para-athletes from 164 countries competed with everything they had in front of a physical audience of 2.7 million people. It was watched on 3.8 billion television screens around the world, with record- breaking audiences, including a record number of young people growing up with a disability who were waking up each day and thinking, “If I put my mind to it, that could be me.” We in this country made a leap forward at that moment, and as we did so, we led the world. The message is repeated at every Paralympic games: never underestimate what someone with a disability can do.

That brings me to disability employment. The Government should recognise the challenges that disabled people face, but must not dissuade anyone of their ability to overcome them. On the contrary, the Government must lean into the barriers to employment and help to knock them aside. On that my party has a strong track record. As a new Back Bencher, I remember being encouraged by a passionate disabilities Minister at the time, Justin Tomlinson, to get involved in our Disability Confident programme to get employers across the country to think differently about disabilities.

In 2017 we set a target to get a million more disabled people into work by 2027, and we met that target five years early; there are now 5.5 million disabled people in work. We took practical steps to achieve that, including working with employers, as I mentioned; funding Access to Work, which helped more than 67,000 people in 2023-24; launching universal support to give personalised support to long-term sick and disabled people to find and stay in work; and providing supported internships for people with special educational needs. Those are just a few examples.

I am a firm believer that work is the best way to improve our standard of living, as well as giving us the satisfaction of a job well done—a view that I am sure is shared by many, if not all, hon. Members present, and also argued for compellingly by my right hon. Friend the Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis) in his extremely well-informed speech. The question is not whether someone can work, but what work they can do and how. If a person with disabilities needs help to work, where does that help come from? Often it comes from family, community, charities—as hon. Members have referred to today, which often have deep expertise—volunteers who give their time and compassion, and, as I have set out, the Government.

The Government’s resources must be targeted. Since the pandemic, we all know that the number of people who are economically inactive due to ill health has surged, reaching 2.8 million people. Apart from the cost, that is a waste of talent and potential. That is why, when the Conservatives were in government, we embarked on reforms to help people to stay in work or get back to work—reforms to fit notes, the launch of WorkWell, the launch of universal support, and our work with employers. We reformed welfare to make sure that financial incentives did not get in the way of work.

I welcome the Government taking forward many of those reforms, but I believe they have made a grave error in kicking the can down the road on the accompanying benefit reforms. Every day that someone who could work is getting money from benefits instead is money that could help a disabled person to live their life to the full.

As I conclude I will return to history, given the topic of the debate. The Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944, which was introduced in response to the second world war, as the hon. Member for Thurrock said, laid the path for disability legislation and protections for the next 80 years. We live in a different era, but our welfare system is built on the vision of our predecessors who were determined to make sure that soldiers who were wounded defending our freedom would be supported on their return home. When the Conservatives were in government, we put our shoulder to the wheel to make our welfare system fit for the 21st century. We made progress, but there is much more to do. Every hon. Member who has spoken today has made important suggestions.

This Disability History Month is a chance to send an emphatic message of encouragement to people with disabilities across the whole United Kingdom. We know how hard every day can be, but let there be no limits to what they can achieve.

It is fantastic to hear about all that the Government are doing on disability. My right hon. Friend the Minister will know that many disabled people rely on family and friends to provide care and support to enable them to have a full life—to participate in work, school and other things that they enjoy—so will he reassure me and others that, in taking a cross-departmental approach to disability, he will be considering the important role of family carers?

I thank the hon. Members who have taken part in the debate. I also thank my hon. Friend the Member for Battersea (Marsha De Cordova) who was instrumental in securing the debate, and her and her team for their help in the preparation of my speech.

I will reflect on some of the issues that have been raised by Members across the House. I thank the hon. Member for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton (Alison Griffiths) for her words about this being the first job where she feels her disability is a bonus; they ring true for a lot of us in this place. That is certainly something that we should take away as disabled Members—what it means to people outside to see us in this place and the message that we can send.

The right hon. Member for New Forest East (Sir Julian Lewis) said that when he lost his sight, he could not imagine being in this place. I would say to anyone watching, “You can. We are here. We are very proud to be here, and you are welcome in this House.” There is long way to go for it to be fully accessible, but there are disabled MPs—more of us than people know—and we are growing in number.

I thank my hon. Friends the Members for Derby North (Catherine Atkinson) and for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket (Peter Prinsley) for raising the issues that deaf people have with access to employment. To first language British Sign Language speakers, I would say that one of the access needs of this House is that [In British Sign Language: There is no BSL on Floor of House.] That will mean something to people who see it at home. I will apologise for doing that afterwards, rather than ask permission, Sir Mark.

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for West Bromwich (Sarah Coombes) for raising wider issues around transport access, which often forms barriers to employment, and also for highlighting that disabled people do not need to be inspirational to deserve the rights and access that everyone enjoys.

I thank the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) for his moving reflections on his grandchild with additional needs. Quite often, as the shadow Secretary of State, the hon. Member for Faversham and Mid Kent (Helen Whately), mentioned, it is when people come into close contact with a disabled person that they find their own attitudes adjusting and realise that there is something about the art of the possible. We can all reflect on whether we are doing enough to adjust our own attitudes towards disability and what is possible.

I thank the hon. Member for Didcot and Wantage (Olly Glover) for raising the issue of discrimination in the workplace and what that looks like. My own experience of employment has been mixed. To experience discrimination based on who you are in a workplace situation is quite a shocking thing. It takes a while to come back from it and to realise that the whole multifaceted thing that makes up “you” has an awful lot to offer. That is something to reflect on.

Finally, I thank the Minister for his thoughts. As I said at the start of the debate, it is incredibly encouraging to see a commitment to put disabled voices at the heart of decision making. I hope he will take that away as the Government develop their approach towards disabled people, not just on the issue of employment but across Government, and make sure that the disabled voice is right at the heart of every policy area that may have an impact on the lives of disabled people—and I would say that that is every policy area. I thank him for his reflection on his experience at the Paris Paralympics. A lot of people who have been in a space that is specifically made for disabled people find themselves thinking, “Why can’t everything be like this? How much better would the world be if access was built right into the system?” The only way to get that is by including disabled people in the design process and in decision making right from the start.

To conclude, I very much would like to be stood here next year in Disability History Month, reflecting on a year of progress. Instead of discussing some of the things we have today, I would like to be looking at how far we have come over the previous 12 months. For a long while, disabled people have been very good at adapting the way we act and at bending to society’s norms. I would throw a challenge out there: maybe it is about time that society bent to us a little bit as well.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

This this House has considered Disability History Month.