Disabled people's chief honoured

The chief executive of an organisation dedicated to ensuring disabled people do not have to face discrimination is to receive and CBE. Robert Niven heads the Disability Rights Commission which is about to be part of the newly created Commission for Equality and Human Rights. Mr Niven fights against any attempt to water down existing legislation.

He has said: "A new Green Paper fails to remedy deficiencies in the existing anti-discrimination laws."

As head of the commission he claims that proposals for unifying equality legislation fail to strengthen legal penalties for businesses and employers who do not take discrimination seriously. "With less than four months to go before the existing equality commissions covering race, gender and disability merge, the new Commission for Equality and Human Rights would be stymied at birth without an effective streamlining of existing legislation into a credible framework."