Oral question asked in the House of Lords, by Baroness Hamwee (Liberal Democrat). It was answered on Tuesday, 7 July 2009.

Disabled People: Toilets

Question: My Lords, the noble Lord mentioned public buildings, and of course this is an important public building. While it is not directly within his responsibility, will he use his good offices to urge that we become on a par with the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly, which have Changing Places facilities? As he clearly understands that the Question is about profoundly and multiply disabled people who have particular needs, can he tell the House what work the Government are doing to collect data in order to understand what are probably the large numbers of people with such needs?

Answer: My Lords, as the noble Baroness identified, the first point is fundamentally a matter for the House authorities. I made inquiries on what provision there was within our buildings. I think that there are no Changing Places facilities; perhaps there are more routine disabled toilet facilities, but probably not enough. So far as data collection is concerned, the discussions that took place last year in relation to the strategy indicated the complexity around all that and the provision that there is generally. Part of it is provided by local authorities and part within commercial facilities, whether supermarkets or pubs. We are not sure that imposing some duty on local authorities in particular to drive the collection of data is the best use of resources and time.

Secondary information