David Anderson – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Culture, Media and Sport

The below Parliamentary question was asked by David Anderson on 2016-01-26.

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what guidance his Department gives on the number and type of wheelchair spaces which should be available for disabled people in music venues across the UK.

Mr Edward Vaizey

The huge variation in size, type and location of music venues across the UK makes it impractical to require venue operators to make a specific number of spaces available for disabled people. However, we believe that everyone should have equal access to arts and culture. We are working with venues and organisations representing disabled people to identify barriers to access along with examples of best practice and how these can be shared and; to consider what more cultural venues need to do to be accessible to people with disabilities.

We are supportive of the work of Attitude is Everything, which aims to improve disabled people’s access to live events, working in partnership with audiences, artists, and the music industry. My ministerial colleague Ed Vaizey also recently held a roundtable meeting with Justin Tomlinson, Minister for Disabled People to look at access to cultural venues and events for disabled people.