Introduction This submission has been produced by the United Kingdom Independent Mechanism (UKIM). In 2009 the UK Government designated the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland (ECNI), the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission (NIHRC) and the Scottish Human Rights Commission (SHRC) as the UK’s Independent Mechanism under CRPD Article 33, tasked with promoting, protecting and monitoring implementation of the CRPD. Since the UK ratified the CRPD in 2009, UKIM has taken active steps to involve disabled people and their representative organisations as part of fulfilling its monitoring role and encouraged their full participation in the monitoring process. The individual independent mechanisms have used a range of activities to involve disabled people across the UK. For example, we have produced guidance and other resources and held engagement and
capacity-building events, roundtable discussions and web-based seminars to ask disabled people to identify their priority issues. We have also provided financial support to disabled people’s organisations to allow them to participate directly in the CRPD reporting process. UK constitutional arrangements The United Kingdom of Britain and Northern Ireland (UK) includes four countries – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. The UK Parliament has devolved various powers to the Scottish Parliament, the National Assembly for Wales and the Northern Ireland Assembly. The UK Parliament maintains responsibility for policy matters that have not been devolved (‘reserved’ matters) and for England. Therefore, responsibility for implementing the CRPD lies with the UK and devolved governments. In addition, there are three separate legal systems in the UK – England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. The Supreme Court is the UK’s highest court of law. It is the final court of appeal for all UK civil cases. It also decides ‘devolution issues’ about whether the devolved authorities in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have acted or propose to act within their powers. How to read this document This submission follows on from the UKIM interim report published in 2014 and provides up to date information about disabled people’s rights in the UK. As the independent mechanism for the UK, we have identified issues under 14 themes and suggested information the Committee might want to request from the UK and devolved governments. This main report identifies problems affecting disabled people across the UK, Great Britain (GB), or in one or two UK countries that we consider to be especially pressing, and which we recommend the CRPD Committee considers in its preparation of the List of Issues for the UK. Our suggested questions indicate whether it is UK, devolved governments or both that have responsibility for implementing measures to address these problems. We have also indicated the CRPD articles relevant to the issues raised within each sub-heading. In addition to this main report, the constituent members of UKIM have prepared supplementary country reports relating to England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. These provide further details and additional suggested questions about problems affecting disabled people in each country, over which the relevant devolved administration (or the UK