New Report on Disability and the Built Environment

The Women and Equalities Committee from the UK Government have just published a report on the barriers  in the built environment for disabled people.

Included in this report are the problems of finding suitable fully accessible toilets. The report can be viewed here.  The recommendations relating to Changing Places toilets are:

  • We recommend that the update to the requirements of Part M Vol. 2’s approved document include a requirement to provide a Changing Places toilet in all large building developments which are open to the public, unless it can be demonstrated that adequate provision is already in place locally. This will require DCLG to undertake an assessment of what is reasonable to define as a ‘large’ development for these purposes—but we expect that as a minimum the requirement will apply to, for example, large shopping centres.
  • We further recommend that the action plan on the accessibility of public transport, currently being developed by the Department for Transport, include action to improve the availability of accessible and Changing Places toilets in transport infrastructure.

There is also a news item from Channel 4 on this report – click here

Although Part M relates to England, PAMIS is working with the people responsible for the Scottish Building Regulations to tighten the legislation in Scotland.  This adds further evidence for our case to make it compulsory for all new large public buildings to include a Changing Places toilet.