- New Access to Elected Office Steering Group set up to support disabled candidates to enter elected office.
- The group will use their lived experience to ensure disabled people’s views and voices are at the heart of decision making.
- Cross-party members to work closely with the Minister for Social Security and Disability, Sir Stephen Timms MP, to boost representation of disabled people in future elections.
Disabled people will be better supported to compete on a level playing field in gaining access to elected office through a new steering group and fund to support with the disability-related expenses that they might face.
The fund will help break down barriers for disabled candidates and be developed with support from a new government steering group who will advise the government on how to boost opportunity for disabled people in seeking to enter elected office.
Drawing on their lived experience of disability, accessing funding or standing for elected office, members will work with the Minister for Social Security and Disability to ensure the fund is effective in increasing disability representation in future elections.
Minister for Social Security and Disability, Sir Stephen Timms MP, said:
We want to ensure that disabled people have the right support to pursue a rewarding career in elected office.
I look forward to working with the new steering group to develop a fund which makes sure that having a disability is not a barrier to success in political life, and that disabled people’s views and voices are at the heart of our efforts to achieve this.
The minister will also engage with MPs with a specialist interest in supporting disabled candidates, gathering insights which will further inform the fund and efforts to maximise its uptake.
The steering group will take learnings from the government’s previous Access to Elected Office Fund and Enable Fund, which similarly helped cover the costs of disability-related expenses – including transport support for mobility impaired candidates and the provision of accessible formats and British Sign Language interpretation.
It follows wider efforts to support disabled people to thrive in work – such as our consultation on mandatory disability pay gap reporting, which will inform how government tackles the gap and puts more money in disabled people’s pockets as part of the Plan for Change.
British Sign Language version of press release
Notes to editors
The members of the steering group are:
- Dr Sarabajaya Kumar, Centenary Action and Founder of the Disabled Women in Politics Network
- Chloe Schendel-Wilson, Disability Policy Centre
- Dr Mark Carew, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Disability Policy Centre
- Fazilet Hadi MBE, Disability Rights UK
- Barry Ginley, Disability consultant and former Conservative party local councillor
- Julie Adnams Hatch, Liberal Democrat Women’s network
- Celia Chartres-Aris, Disability campaigner
- David Buxton OBE, Action on Disability
- Kathryn Bole FRSA, Disability Politics Centre and Disability Labour
- Jane Bevan, Greater Manchester Disabled People’s Panel
- Nuala Toman, Disability Action
- Helen Rowlands, Disability Consultant and Researcher
- Dr Mustafa Mohammed, Ability2Win
