UK Government ‘making application’ to appeal ruling that National Disability Strategy was unlawful

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Leader of the House of Commons, has said the UK Government will be “making an application to appeal” a High Court ruling which found its National Disability Strategy was unlawful for not meaningfully consulting with disabled people.

In his judgment on a case brought by four disabled people – published on Thursday – Mr Justice Griffiths said Work and Pensions Secretary Thérèse Coffey “took on a duty to consult which she did not properly discharge and, as a result, the consultation she carried out, principally by means of the Survey, was not lawful”.

“The multiple-choice format, and the word limit on free-form responses (although I am told that this was not enforced), did not allow for a proper response even to the issues canvassed in the Survey.

“The design of the Survey forced the defendant’s own analysis on respondents, without providing enough leeway for the required ‘intelligent response’ from the respondents themselves,” he added.

However, responding to comments from Vicky Foxcroft MP – Labour’s Shadow Minister for Disabled People – on Thursday, Mr Rees-Mogg confirmed the government would be looking to overturn the judge’s decision.

“The Disabled Strategy [sic] is a fundamentally important strategy brought forward by the government to ensure the best possible support for disabled people.

“This is exactly what the government is doing, and it lost, as I said earlier, on a technicality.

“This is not undermining the government’s fundamental drive to help disabled people,” he said.

The government are treating disabled people with contempt.

Their #NationalDisabilityStrategy has been found unlawful. No debate and no statement on this damning high court ruling is a disgrace.

My question to the Leader of the House earlier 👇 https://t.co/eWWxos2KOq pic.twitter.com/kd0emMnWzw

— Vicky Foxcroft MP 💙 (@vickyfoxcroft) January 27, 2022

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), which oversees the study, had previously told The Limping Chicken it would “consider our next steps carefully”.

Commenting on the government’s plans to appeal the judgment, solicitor Shirin Marker of Bindmans LLP, who represents the claimants, said: “The claimants are disappointed that the government is choosing to appeal this judgment, rather than simply accepting its responsibility to consult disabled people lawfully on the National Disability Strategy.

“This appeal only further delays the very necessary engagement and policy reform needed to improve the lives of disabled people.”

Claimant Doug Paulley added: “I don’t see how it could possibly be rightly called a ‘technicality’ that the consultation failed to provide any details of the proposed strategy, was not on issues important to disabled people (such as would we be prepared to have an intimate relationship with a disabled person), steamrollered our responses and was fundamentally not fit for purpose.

“The judiciary have agreed with disabled people that the consultation was not fit for purpose, undermined disabled people’s input and inevitably makes the strategy itself unlawful and unworkable.

“Instead of spending money, time and effort on appealing the case, the Government could and should spend it on conducting genuine involvement with disabled people and our organisations – not charities for disabled people – and rewrite the strategy based on enforced rights of access to society.

“But they won’t,” he said.

39 Essex Chambers, who acted on behalf of the claimants in court, have been approached for comment.

The National Disability Strategy was published in July last year, following a UK Disability Survey to inform the document at the start of 2021.

The UK Government’s consultation around the strategy has also been criticised by the Disability Charities Consortium, which is made up of organisations such as the Royal National Institute for Deaf people (RNID), Disability Rights UK and Scope.

The consortium said last year that “the lack of consultation with disabled people in the creation” of the document was something they had highlighted to the UK Government.

Photo: ParliamentLive.tv

By Liam O’Dell. Liam is an award-winning Deaf freelance journalist and campaigner from Bedfordshire. He can be found talking about disability, theatre, politics and more on Twitter and on his website.