Disability Rights Commission Act 1999
| Year | 1999 |
Disability Rights Commission Act 1999
1999 Chapter 17
An Act to establish a Disability Rights Commission and make provision as to its functions; and for connected purposes.
[27th July 1999]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
1 The Disability Rights Commission.
(1) There shall be a body known as the Disability Rights Commission (referred to in this Act as ‘the Commission’).
(2) The Secretary of State shall pay to the Commission such sums as he thinks fit to enable it to meet its expenses.
(3) Schedule 1 (the Commission's constitution and related matters) has effect.
(4) The National Disability Council (which is superseded by the Commission) is abolished.
2 General functions.
(1) The Commission shall have the following duties—
(a) to work towards the elimination of discrimination against disabled persons;
(b) to promote the equalisation of opportunities for disabled persons;
(c) to take such steps as it considers appropriate with a view to encouraging good practice in the treatment of disabled persons; and
(d) to keep under review the working of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (referred to in this Act as ‘the 1995 Act’) and this Act.
(2) The Commission may, for any purpose connected with the performance of its functions—
(a) make proposals or give other advice to any Minister of the Crown as to any aspect of the law or a proposed change to the law;
(b) make proposals or give other advice to any Government agency or other public authority as to the practical application of any law;
(c) undertake, or arrange for or support (whether financially or otherwise), the carrying out of research or the provision of advice or information.
Nothing in this subsection is to be regarded as limiting the Commission's powers.
(3) The Commission shall make proposals or give other advice under subsection (2)(a) on any matter specified in a request from a Minister of the Crown.
(4) The Commission may make charges for facilities or services made available by it for any purpose.
(5) In this section—
‘disabled persons’ includes persons who have had a disability;
‘discrimination’ means anything which is discrimination for the purposes of any provision of Part II or Part III of the 1995 Act; and
‘the law’ includes Community law and the international obligations of the United Kingdom.
3 Formal investigations.
(1) The Commission may decide to conduct a formal investigation for any purpose connected with the performance of its duties under section 2(1).
(2) The Commission shall conduct a formal investigation if directed to do so by the Secretary of State for any such purpose.
(3) The Commission may at any time decide to stop or to suspend the conduct of a formal investigation; but any such decision requires the approval of the Secretary of State if the investigation is being conducted in pursuance of a direction under subsection (2).
(4) The Commission may, as respects any formal investigation which it has decided or been directed to conduct—
(a) nominate one or more commissioners, with or without one or more additional commissioners appointed for the purposes of the investigation, to conduct the investigation on its behalf; and
(b) authorise those persons to exercise such of its functions in relation to the investigation (which may include drawing up or revising terms of reference) as it may determine.
(5) Schedule 2 (appointment and tenure of office of additional commissioners) and Schedule 3 (so far as relating to the conduct of formal investigations) have effect.
4 Non-discrimination notices.
(1) If in the course of a formal investigation the Commission is satisfied that a person has committed or is committing an unlawful act, it may serve on him a notice (referred to in this Act as a non-discrimination notice) which—
(a) gives details of the unlawful act which the Commission has found that he has committed or is committing; and
(b) requires him not to commit any further unlawful acts of the same kind (and, if the finding is that he is committing an unlawful act, to cease doing so).
(2) The notice may include recommendations to the person concerned as to action which the Commission considers he could reasonably be expected to take with a view to complying with the requirement mentioned in subsection (1)(b).
(3) The notice may require the person concerned—
(a) to propose an adequate action plan (subject to and in accordance with Part III of Schedule 3) with a view to securing compliance with the requirement mentioned in subsection (1)(b); and
(b) once an action plan proposed by him has become final, to take any action which—
(i) is specified in the plan; and
(ii) he has not already taken,
at the time or times specified in the plan.
(4) For the purposes of subsection (3)—
(a) an action plan is a document drawn up by the person concerned specifying action (including action he has already taken) intended to change anything in his practices, policies, procedures or other arrangements which—
(i) caused or contributed to the commission of the unlawful act concerned; or
(ii) is liable to cause or contribute to a failure to comply with the requirement mentioned in subsection (1)(b); and
(b) an action plan is adequate if the action specified in it would be sufficient to ensure, within a reasonable time, that he is not prevented from complying with that requirement by anything in his practices, policies, procedures or other arrangements;
and the action specified in an action plan may include ceasing an activity or taking continuing action over a period.
(5) In this section ‘unlawful act’ means an act which is unlawful discrimination for the purposes of any provision of Part II or Part III of the 1995 Act or any other unlawful act of a description prescribed for the purposes of this section.
(6) Schedule 3 (so far as relating to non-discrimination notices and action plans) has effect.
5 Agreements in lieu of enforcement action.
(1) If the Commission has reason to believe that a person has committed or is committing an unlawful act, it may (subject to section 3(3)) enter into an agreement in writing under this section with that person on the assumption that that belief is well founded (whether or not that person admits that he committed or is committing the act in question).
(2) An agreement under this section is one by which—
(a) the Commission undertakes not to take any relevant enforcement action in relation to the unlawful act in question; and
(b) the person concerned undertakes—
(i) not to commit any further unlawful acts of the same kind (and, where appropriate, to cease committing the unlawful act in question); and
(ii) to take such action (which may include ceasing an activity or taking continuing action over any period) as may be specified in the agreement.
(3) Those undertakings are binding on the parties to the agreement; but undertakings under subsection (2)(b) are enforceable by the Commission only as provided by subsection (8).
(4) For the purposes of subsection (2)(a), ‘relevant enforcement action’ means—
(a) beginning a formal investigation into the commission by the person concerned of the unlawful act in question;
(b) if such an investigation has begun (whether or not the investigation is confined to that matter), taking any further steps in the investigation of that matter; and
(c) taking any steps, or further steps, with a view to the issue of a non-discrimination notice based on the commission of the unlawful act in question.
(5) The action specified in an undertaking under subsection (2)(b)(ii) must be action intended to change anything in the practices, policies, procedures or other arrangements of the person concerned which—
(a) caused or contributed to the commission of the unlawful act in question; or
(b) is liable to cause or contribute to a failure to comply with his undertaking under subsection (2)(b)(i).
(6) An agreement under this section—
(a) may include terms providing for incidental or supplementary matters (including the termination of the agreement, or the right of either party to terminate it, in certain circumstances); and
(b) may be varied or revoked by agreement of the parties.
(7) An agreement under this section may not include any provisions other than terms mentioned in subsections (2) and (6)(a) unless their inclusion is authorised by regulations made by the Secretary of State for the purposes of this section; but any provisions so authorised are not enforceable by the Commission under subsection (8).
(8) The Commission may apply to a county court or by summary application to the sheriff for an order under this subsection if—
(a) the other party to an agreement under this section has failed to comply with any undertaking under subsection (2)(b); or
(b) the Commission has reasonable cause to believe that he intends not to comply with any such undertaking.
(9) An order under subsection (8) is an order requiring the other party to comply with the undertaking or with such directions for the same purpose as are contained in...
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