When councillors must not delegate disability equality duty to officers (News, 27 March 2012)

Article summary

Where a full council meeting of a local authority is taking a budgetary decision which will have the effect that certain services from which disabled persons previously benefited will no longer be provided, then, in order for the authority to comply with its obligations under the disability equality duty found in the DDA 1995, councillors voting on the decision must at least be provided beforehand with information covering the essential features of how the duty will be fulfilled in the context of the discontinuance of those services, and it will not be sufficient for the council's officers instead to consider the duty, with the councillors taking their decision relying on those officers, as it is the decision-maker itself which must have due regard to the duty, according to the High Court in R (Barrett) v Lambeth LB.