Crippen Cartoons cartoons at the cutting edge of disability

Despite the government’s works and pensions secretary Therese Coffee continuing to argue that last year’s disability survey was not a consultation but was just an information-gathering exercise, designed only to gather data about the lives of disabled people, she’s now been made to eat her words by the high court!

In an action brought by disabled campaigners, the high court found that not only was it a consultation but that it was an unlawful consultation, because the thousands of disabled people who took part were not given enough information about the government’s proposed strategy to allow them “intelligent consideration and response”. And because the court has found that the consultation was unlawful, then so is the strategy, which was published last July.

Disabled campaigners are now calling on the government to tear up its “fundamentally broken” National Disability Strategy after the high court ruled that the much-criticised document was unlawful. The court also found that the survey’s multiple-choice format, and the word limit on the small number of questions that allowed free-form responses, “did not allow for a proper response even to the issues canvassed in the Survey”.

It is not yet clear what action the government will take following the ruling, although a spokesperson said it was considering its next steps (I bet they are!).

Read the full account of this latest debacle in Disability News Service.

Description of cartoon for those using screen reading software

Iain Duncan Smith is lounging in an upholstered chair with a glass of brandy and a large cigar in his hands. On the back of the chair hangs his Peer’s crown. Standing in front of him clutching a paper that says ‘high court ruling’ printed on it is Therese Coffee. She looks worried. On the floor between them is another paper with ‘national disability strategy printed upon it. IDS is saying: “ Just ignore them Therese – they should realise that we’re all above the law!”