DRC comment on joint committee on human rights report.

Chairman of the DRC, Sir Bert Massie said in response today:

“The most important point from the Committee is that many older and disabled people living in private or voluntary sector care homes are not protected by the Human Rights Act (HRA) and this legal loophole must be plugged.

“No part of the care sector should be beyond laws that protect human dignity and guarantee freedom from inhuman and degrading treatment. The abuse and neglect of older and disabled people in care can only be tackled if perpetrators are handed out the highest sanctions, whether it is in the NHS, local authority or privately run care homes.

“For too long a succession of bleak reports, stories and reports have highlighted abuses within the system. The Government and the incoming Commission for Equality and Human Rights should be making this a number one priority for action.”

Ends

Further information from Alyson Rose in the DRC Press Office on

0207 543 7043 or out of hours on 0777 6171279.

The DRC intervened - as an interested party - in the ‘YL’ case against Birmingham City Council and others on whether care homes providing accommodation under contract with a local authority were exercising “functions of a public nature” and so within the remit of the Human Rights Act. The Law lords ruled that they were not bound by the HRA.

Alyson Rose
Chief Press Officer
Disability Rights Commission
0207 543 7043/mobile: 0777 6171279
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