7. Statement by the Leader of the House and Chief Whip: Action on Disability: The Right to Independent Living

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 4:44 pm on 16 October 2018.

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Photo of Julie James Julie James Labour 4:44, 16 October 2018

Yes. Starting with that last matter first, I very much welcome them, and one of the reasons I wanted to bring this statement forward was to encourage groups like Vale People First to come forward with anything that they think we've left out, or we can enhance, or we could add to the framework when it comes out. Of course, we have already extensively consulted—we wanted to have it as good as it could be before we went out to consultation, so it won't be a surprise to organisations. Nevertheless, we want them to comment back to us and I very much welcome the comments back of all of the elected Members who have much experience on this matter. Jane Hutt, you're very much one of those, in terms of what you think the framework could add or how it could fit together. And as I said in response to Helen Mary Jones, I'm very keen to make sure that we have a transparent and open pathway for all of the elements of somebody's life that need to come together here, so that it's very clear to employers, members of civic society, businesses, and people themselves what this framework requires of them and what they need to do to comply with it, and, you know, what the carrots and sticks associated with compliance or otherwise are. I've worked very closely with a range of Ministers, who are actually behind me at the moment, but other Ministers as well, and we've mentioned today public services—public transport, for example—to make sure that we that we have a cross-Government framework, following in your footsteps, I must say, to make sure that this isn't siloed, that it does take into account action right across.

If I could just, Deputy Presiding Officer, make one point here—. So, for example, the Equality Act 2010—there's an issue about whether we incorporate the UN convention or we bring bits of it into force straight away or we change the wording slightly to make it mesh better together. I want to have a proper conversation to ensure that what we get out of that is really fit for purpose into the future, rather than just doing it piecemeal. I'm very interested in that conversation going forward and I very much hope that the framework, when you see it, and the action plan in particular that goes with it, sets out that as a pathway.