Wheelchair users on buses only have a right to “reasonable adjustments”

The “first come first served” policy for the disabled bay on buses is not unlawful, the Court of Appeal has held.

Wheelchair user Doug Paulley brought a claim against First Bus Group after a driver refused to force a woman with a sleeping baby in a pushchair to vacate the wheelchair space. The woman said the pushchair did not fold down. The driver followed company policy. 

Paulley argued that he suffered a substantial disadvantage due to First Bus Group’s policy of asking rather than requiring passengers to step aside for wheelchair users.

Delivering judgment in First Group v Paulley [2014] EWCA Civ 1573, Lord Justice Lewison said the case was not about whether non-wheelchair users should make space for a passenger in a wheelchair, nor whether mothers with pushchairs should make way for a wheelchair user. 

“What is at issue is whether the bus company must have a policy to compel all other passengers to vacate the wheelchair space irrespective of the reason why they are in it, on pain of being made to leave the bus if they do not, leaving no discretion to the driver,” he said. 

He concluded that that was “a step too far”, and accepted First Bus Group’s appeal that their policy is not discriminatory or in breach of the Equality Act 2010.

He said that, while wheelchair users have a right to “reasonable adjustments”, it would not be reasonable for drivers to risk battery by forcibly removing passengers, nor could a driver be expected to adjudicate between competing claims and nor could a company be expected to sue a passenger who refused to move. Mothers with a pushchair could be ordered off a bus but their child could not. Mothers often had more than one child with them.

Unity Law, which acted for Paulley, is seeking leave to appeal.