North Wales MS and Chair of the Senedd Cross-Party Group on Disability, Mark Isherwood, has once again called on the Welsh Government to outline when it will intervene to stop the abuse of disabled people.
Responding to yesterday’s Statement by the Cabinet Secretary for Social Justice, Trefnydd and Chief Whip: ‘International Day of Disabled People’, which will be observed today (3rd December), Mr Isherwood said he is “contacted almost daily by Disabled constituents being bullied, blamed, labelled and targeted by certain Local Authorities operating in breach of their Public Sector Equality Duties and the Social Services and Wellbeing Act”.
He therefore asked the Cabinet Secretary, “When, if ever, will this Welsh Government intervene to stop this abuse?”
Speaking in the Senedd Chamber, he said:
“This year’s International Day of Disabled people theme is ‘Fostering Disability-Inclusive Societies for Advancing Social Progress’. Never in my more than two decades as a Member here has this been more pertinent in Wales.
“The Welsh Government recently entered a legally binding agreement with the Equality and Human Rights Commission, or EHRC, after its breaches of the Public Sector Equality Duty, which includes the development of a quality assurance monitoring process, training, governance improvements, and review of current procedures and guidance, with monitoring in place until November 2027.
“How specifically will you ensure that this monitoring process is robust and transparent enough to prevent future breaches, where I hear from Disabled People on an almost daily basis discriminated against by Public Bodies breaching their duties under the Equality Act, as well as their duties under Welsh law?”
He added:
“The Commission has also highlighted that the Welsh Government’s draft Disabled People’s Rights Plan 2025–2035 lacks clear, measurable outcomes, time-bound actions, and accountability mechanisms.
“Similarly, Disabled People’s Organisations represented on your Disability Rights Taskforce stated that without funding and clear robust targets to implement the Plan: 'it is very difficult to see how the Plan will make a difference to Disabled People in Wales’.
“What, if any action will you take to respond to these material concerns, beyond the consultation, to strengthen the Plan by including specific indicators, baselines, and targets, with robust accountability, to ensure measurable progress on disabled people’s rights?
“You repeatedly restate the Welsh Government’s commitment to the Social Model of Disability, rightly recognising that people are disabled not by their impairments, but by the barriers to access and inclusion that society places in their way. In this context, however, the EHRC’s findings evidence a failure of action in practice to remove these barriers.
“This has been further evidenced in the Welsh Government’s protracted resistance to the Petition to make Blue Badges lifelong for those with lifelong conditions.”
Mr Isherwood also questioned the Cabinet Secretary over the timescale for the introduction of a ‘Welsh Benefits System’ for all the means-tested benefits the Welsh Government is responsible for, and asked what targets will be in place to measure progress.
In a further question, he asked her to respond to the Bevan Foundation statement regarding the Welsh Benefits Charter with the Welsh Local Government Association that, although the current arrangements are based on collaboration and partnership, participation is therefore voluntary, with a risk that some bodies do not participate at all, while others do their own thing.
He concluded by asking what action has been taken since she told the Cross-Party Group on Disability in June that she had set up a Legislative Options Working Group to consider what can be done to incorporate the UN Convention on the Rights of Disabled People into Welsh Law.
