Department for Transport

DPTAC publishes Annual Report 2004-2005
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date 7 Dec 2005 00:00
source Department for Transport
type Press release

Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee

The Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee today published its Annual Report 2004-2005. The Committee provides independent advice to the Secretary of State for Transport on the transport needs of disabled people. Until April 2005, it also advised on disabled people's needs in the built environment.

In the foreword to the report, Alistair Darling, Secretary of State for Transport writes:

"The Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee helps my Department to develop, critique and improve our policies and programmes to ensure that they address the needs of disabled people".

Over the year the Committee made recommendations in support of the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 which includes a requirement for all rail vehicles to be accessible by 2020. Together with the charity Tripscope, the transport travel information charity for disabled people, the Committee launched the Door to Door Website which advises disabled people on every aspect of planning and making journeys. The Committee was also busy developing lesson plans for primary school Design and Technology teachers showing how to teach the principles of accessible design as part of the National Curriculum.

Neil Betteridge, DPTAC Chair, said:

"DPTAC will continue to work with the Government and key stakeholders to raise awareness of the need to incorporate the principles of inclusive design into all policies, projects and practices both in the public and private sectors. We need to ensure that our transport systems and built environment become accessible to everyone.

"The public sector duties arising from the Disability Discrimination Act 2005 which will make it unlawful for Local Authorities to discriminate against disabled people in exercising of their function and the potential the Act gives for Government to remove the exemption from the DDA for transport vehicles will go a long way to achieving this aim".

Notes to Editors

1. The Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee (DPTAC) was set up under the Transport Act of 1985 to advise Government on the transport needs of all disabled people. In 2000 DPTAC's role was extended, on a non-statutory basis, to advise the Government on the built environment needs of disabled people. On 1 April 2005 the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister changed sponsorship for the DPTAC Built Environment Group to the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) and it became the freestanding Inclusive Environment Group.

2. Neil Betteridge, who is Chief Executive of Arthritis Care, was appointed Chair of DPTAC in 2003. The Committee (with a maximum of 20 members of whom at least half must be disabled people), represents a wide range of transport interests.

Disabled Persons Transport Advisory Committee

Zone 4/24
Great Minster House
76 Marsham Street
London SW1P 4DR

Website: www.dptac.gov.uk

Railhub Archive ::: 2005-12-07 DfT-001