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11 February 2010 / Nicholas Dobson
Issue: 7404 / Categories: Features , Public
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Statutory failures

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Complying with DDA 1995 duties means more than ticking the right boxes, says Nicholas Dobson

The reach of local authority duties under the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA 1995) is now very extensive. So authorities that ignore or pay inadequate regard to them proceed at their peril. A stark judicial reminder of this came last December from His Honour Judge Milwyn Jarman QC in the Administrative Court in the conjoined cases of R (Boyejo and others) v Barnet London Borough Council and R (Smith) v Portsmouth Borough Council [2009] EWHC 3261 (Admin), [2009] All ER (D) 169 (Dec).

In both cases the authorities had decided to change the way they provided support services to residents of sheltered accommodation in their areas. Barnet had resolved to terminate contracts for on-site warden-based services and to develop a peripatetic support service with the retention of an alarm service to all residents in such accommodation.

Portsmouth Council’s decision was to terminate the provision for sleep-in night staff at each of its sheltered housing schemes within the category providing for

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