The Member’s Bill to establish a Disability Commissioner for Scotland was introduced in the Scottish Parliament yesterday.

This is a milestone mark in the journey to have a dedicated champion of disability rights in our country.

The Disability Commissioner is envisioned to have a wide-ranging role including to:-

1. Promote awareness and understanding of the rights of disabled people
2. Review law, policy, and practice relating to the rights of disabled people
3. Involve disabled people and disabled peoples organisations in the work of the Commissioner.
4. Advocate for disabled people at a national level
5. Promote best practice by service providers
6. Promote, undertake, commission, and publish research on matters relating to disabled people
7. Power to undertake investigations into issues that relate to disabled people and/or a disabled person
8. Be independent of the Scottish Government and report to the Scottish Parliament
9. Have regard to the importance of communicating in an inclusive way

Now that this Bill has been introduced to the Scottish Parliament, it will follow the same procedure as a Government Bill.

The first step, in the 3-step process, is the Bill will be allocated to one of the Scottish Parliament Committees to allow for a detailed examination of the Bill’s contents and hear from experts, organisations, and members of the public.

The Committee will put out a call for views as part of this process.

A big thank you to Jeremy Balfour MSP for putting this Members Bill forward and to everyone who has supported and informed this bill when it was first proposed in 2022.