Ms Siobhan Barron:

The National Disability Authority, NDA, is not a regulatory body. It is a policy advisory body but we do have functions and roles in monitoring programmes. We do not have powers of enforcement or inspection. We monitor compliance with accessibility requirements by all public sector bodies and Departments. We are also monitored. We have a code of practice on accessible public services and information. We consider the transport service in that context. As part of that we are researching a monitoring mechanism to roll out the focus for a detailed analysis of what is happening in the transport area. We started that with research on the kind of tools and mechanisms that would be effective for measuring accessibility. Other jurisdictions struggle with how to ensure strong, clear, concrete standards to measure accessibility. There is very poor quality data, and differing data from service providers. We considered trialling a system and self-assessment questionnaires, we did mystery shopping and customer satisfaction surveys and we analysed performance measurement systems.

We worked very closely with the NTA, the Department and the public service providers and disability stakeholders to try to devise something that would be workable and would give the quality information required. We intend to roll that out later this year. There will be roles for us and for the NTA in monitoring that transport. The NTA has responsibility for receiving quarterly performance reports from public service providers. There is potential to focus on accessibility within that and we would work to give guidance on how that might be measured and reported consistently. In addition, we would consider the areas of the roles of access officers in transport services, monitoring how that is working on the ground, the accessible information. We would produce an independent assessment and report for the Minister on that with recommendations on what needs to be addressed. We would also use the monitoring to advise further actions the various bodies could implement but we do not have the power to enforce the implementation of those actions.