New commission starts to tackle disability bias

The new Disability Rights Commission (DRC) started work at the end of last month with powers to assist individuals in employment tribunal cases under the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA). It will have similar responsibilities to the Equal Opportunities Commission and the Commission for Racial Equality.

The DRC's main functions are to work towards the elimination of discrimination against disabled people, to promote the equalisation of opportunities for disabled people and to keep under review the workings of the legislation on disability discrimination.

The commission is chaired by Bert Massie, former director of disability umbrella group RADAR, and trade union interests are represented by Richard Exell, a senior policy officer at the TUC who has substantial experience of disability issues.

Exell told Labour Research that the commission has a "hefty agenda" for the first year. It will include: enforcing the rights of individuals by taking cases on their behalf under the DDA; running the disability rights advice helpline; and advising on how to implement the 150 recommendations of the Disability Rights Task Force that reported on ways of improving rights for disabled people.

The DRC will also be advising the government on lowering, or removing, the small-employer threshold which currently exempts employers of fewer than 15 people from the DDA.

The DRC replaces the National Disability Council which was set up when the Disability Discrimination Act first came into force in 1996. The NDC was heavily criticised for its limited powers and disability groups led a campaign to force the government to introduce a more effective body.

The DRC will have around 60 staff and a seven-strong team of directors, one of whom, Caroline Gooding, is secretary of the Trade Union Disability Alliance, a self-organised group of disabled trade unionists.