Baroness Pidgeon (LD)

My Lords, my noble friend Lady Brinton is in the Chamber today, leading for our party on the Public Office (Accountability) Bill, so she gives her apologies to the Grand Committee. My noble friend had signed Amendments 116, 121A, 144A, 186A, 220A, 220C and 220P, proposed by either the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, or the noble Lord, Lord Holmes, two respected disability champions in this House. My noble friend also supports Amendment 336 but did not manage in time to add her name to that. In the previous group, my noble friend Lord Beith talked about multimodal travel being a gamble. However, the noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, has described travelling as a disabled passenger, even in one mode, as, effectively, a high-risk sport. The figures that she has outlined for us today are astonishing and really rather frightening, to be honest. The level of poor service that disabled passengers receive—if any service at all—is quite astonishing, especially in this day and age. There is a key issue of principle in this group of amendments. First, I thank the Minister and the Government for recognising that the rights of disabled passengers need to be strengthened and clarified, but that is only half of the compact that needs to be corrected in order to ensure that disabled passengers can travel safely, on time and with the service that is available to all other passengers.