Thursday 16 December 2004

Consulation on Definition of Disability

The Disability Discrimination Bill is currently undergoing its second reading in the House of Lords (see bulletin 6/12/04).

Whilst the Bill is mainly concerned with matters relating to issues outside the employment relationship, it involves an extension to the definition of disability to automatically cover some people with cancer, HIV and multiple sclerosis from the point of diagnosis, irrespective of whether they can establish the necessary adverse effect on their ability to carry out day-to-day activities.

The DWP has today issued a consultation paper on, amongst other things, excluding certain cancers from the scope of the extended definition. The document proposes excluding the most common cancers which are not considered to require substantial treatment and it identifies a list of the cancers to be excluded (e.g. basal cell carcinomas and Bowen's Disease);

Consultation Document (57 pages - takes a while to download)

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