This Order brings into force sections 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45 and, to the extent not previously in force, 48 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 on 30th August 2000.

Section 40 empowers the Secretary of State to make public service vehicles accessibility regulations to ensure that disabled persons may get on to and off regulated public service vehicles in safety and without unreasonable difficulty (and, in the case of disabled persons in wheelchairs, to do so while remaining in their wheelchairs) and to be carried in such vehicles in safety and reasonable comfort.

Section 41 provides that a regulated public service vehicle shall not be used on a road unless a vehicle examiner has issued an accessibility certificate that such provisions of any regulations as are made are satisfied in respect of the vehicle. It also empowers the Secretary of State to make regulations with respect to applications for, and the issue of, such certificates and provides that if a regulated public service vehicle is used in contravention of the section, the operator of the vehicle is guilty of an offence.

Section 42 empowers the Secretary of State, if satisfied that the accessibility regulations prescribed for the purposes of section 41 are satisfied in respect of a particular vehicle, to approve the vehicle as a “type vehicle”. The section also provides, in a case where a declaration has been made (in the prescribed form) that a particular vehicle conforms in design, construction and equipment with a type vehicle, for the issue by a vehicle examiner of a certificate that that vehicle conforms to the type vehicle, and empowers the Secretary of State to make regulations with respect to applications for, and grants of, such approval and certification.

Section 43 empowers the Secretary of State, subject to such restrictions and conditions as may be provided, to authorise the use on the road of a regulated public service vehicle of a specified class or description, or as he may specify, and nothing in sections 40, 41 or 42 shall prevent the use of any such vehicle in accordance with that authorisation.

Section 44 contains provisions relating to the review by the Secretary of State of his decision to refuse the approval of a vehicle under section 42 and for appeals from the refusal of a vehicle examiner to issue an accessibility certificate under section 41 or a certificate under section 42.

Section 45 empowers the Secretary of State to prescribe fees in respect of applications for, or grants of, approvals and certificates, for copies of such certificates and for reviews and appeals.

Section 48 provides that where an offence under section 40 or 46 is committed by a body corporate, or, in Scotland, a partnership or an unincorporated association, with the consent or connivance of certain persons, those persons shall also be guilty of the offence.

A Regulatory Impact Assessment of the costs and benefits of the coming into force of sections 40 to 45 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995, and of regulations made thereunder, has been prepared and copies can be obtained from the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions, Zone 1/18, Great Minster House, 76 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DR (telephone 020 7944 4914). A copy has been placed in the library of each House of Parliament.