The Resources Committee was made aware of a recent specific incident whereby a wheelchair user was in a PSNI Custody Suite which was not equipped with disability accessible facilities.
Can the Chief Constable please advise on the adequacy of custody suites across the PSNI estate particularly in relation to compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act and indicate what plans he has to address any deficiencies as part of the proposals that are being developed to transform the PSNI Estate.
At the time of their construction all PSNI custody suites were built to Home Office specification and complied with applicable equality legislation.
At present eight out of the eleven PSNI custody suites are wheelchair accessible. Dungannon, Strand Road and Strabane are not. While the other eight suites are wheelchair accessible, not all may be regarded as wheelchair “friendly.” This may be due to legislation changes since the time of building, or because it has not been possible to change the existing infrastructure of the suites due to limitations with space. We have a regular maintenance program in place which aims to not only correct faults as they arise but also to update the suites as far as possible as legislation changes.
Due to the high risk nature of the custody environment, minor deviations may occur from legislation if, for example, following a risk assessment, it is deemed that to install a particular piece of equipment may pose a risk to members of staff, visitors to the suite or detainees.
Future custody suite builds will be Home Office compliant and as such will comply with any existing equality legislation. Works have commenced on a new build suite at Waterside which will replace Strand Road and Strabane, with a major refurbishment of Enniskillen custody suite also planned. As the custody estate is rationalised and improved the outstanding issues of non- wheelchair friendly facilities will be addressed.
The speed of these developments will be directly enabled by the availability of adequate funding to complete the rationalisation of the custody estate.