Taking civil proceedings

It is for individual disabled people to take civil proceedings if they feel they have suffered discrimination contrary to the Equality Act. In England and Wales, County Court action must be brought within six months of the alleged discrimination. In Scotland, it is the Sheriff Court.

If successful, a disabled person could receive damages for any financial loss or injury to feelings and may also be able to seek an injunction against a business to prevent the repeat of any discriminatory act.

Discrimination complaint

It would be normal for a disabled person to make first a verbal complaint to the business, followed by a written complaint if no action was forthcoming. The written complaint may well be in a set of questions from the Government Equalities website.

The written complaint would set out the terms of the complaint, make reference to the regulations of the Equality Act and give the business a fixed time, 8 weeks, to reply.

This would be a reasonable attempt to resolve the issue to the satisfaction of both parties before taking legal action and should be responded to positively.

If you receive questions from someone, you are not legally required to reply to the request, or to answer the questions, but it may harm your case if you do not. The questions and the answers can form part of the evidence in a case brought under the Equality Act 2010.

If you do not respond to the questionnaire within eight weeks of it being sent, the court can take that into account when making its judgment. The court can also take into account answers which are evasive or unclear.

ENFORCEMENT OF THE EA

Enforcement of the Equality Act

Enforcement is through disabled people themselves taking civil proceedings. The Government and local authorities have no role in the process at the moment.

Disabled people have, in the past, been supported in taking legal action by the Disability Rights Commission (DRC) and other organisations interested in disability and equality rights. The successor to the DRC is the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).

Understanding access problems

A first step in understanding the disabled person's point of view could be an audit using the AccessOK HealthCheck.