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Adults with Learning Disabilities

That is a very worthwhile suggestion. As I said earlier, with the appropriate support people with learning disabilities are reliable and motivated employees. They simply are not given the opportunities that they should be, because of society's generally low expectations of them. If they are given the chance, they will perform, as we saw on a number of our visits when we prepared the evidence for our inquiry. The hon. Gentleman is right about Parliament. We have made a number of recommendations about how public bodies serve adults with learning disabilities, but how well does Parliament itself serve that group? We worked hard to engage adults with learning disabilities during our inquiry, but there is a lot more that we could do. For example, my Committee staff will prepare a summary of our debate today for publication in an easy-read version—Hansard is inaccessible to many people with learning disabilities. I have met the Commons outreach team and following on from that, I have written to the parliamentary authorities to raise the issue of accessibility. We will continue to press for that to be addressed. Indeed, I raised the matter during questions to the Leader of the House today when I asked about the importance of making such facilities available. I got—I think—a relatively positive response. I was told that the issue would be looked into. It is just not acceptable that adults with learning disabilities cannot access parliamentary material and services of relevance and interest to them. In conclusion, our inquiry covered a wide range of issues in which the human rights of adults with learning disabilities were being routinely and deliberately ignored or casually overlooked. Such behaviour was found to be the main cause of the institutional abuse uncovered in Cornwall and Sutton, and by Mencap in its report. The Government are moving in the right direction, and I congratulate the Minister on publishing "Valuing People Now". None the less, we need strong leadership. The Minister's heart—and that of his predecessor—is in the right place. Moreover, the policies are right, too. The problem is the gap between such policies and the everyday experience of people with learning disabilities. There has been a lack of effective monitoring and we must plug that gap. We need a national culture change to recognise that people with learning disabilities have the same rights as everyone else. It is not just a question of being nice to "unfortunate people". We must recognise their rights as equal citizens, and empower them by involving them in the development of policy and in the taking of decisions over their own lives. There is a very long journey ahead before the human rights of adults with learning disabilities are fully respected in the UK, and my Committee will continue to press the Government to do more.