This Order brings into force sections 46, 47 and (partially) 48 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995.

Section 46 empowers the Secretary of State to make rail vehicle accessibility regulations to ensure that disabled persons, including those seated in wheelchairs, may get on to and off rail vehicles in safety and without unreasonable difficulty and may be carried in reasonable comfort.

Section 47 empowers the Secretary of State to make exemption orders exempting vehicles from the rail vehicle accessibility regulations, and to make regulations in respect of applications for exemptions.

Section 48 provides that where an offence is committed by a body corporate, or, in Scotland, a partnership or an unincorporated association, with the consent or connivance of certain persons, those persons shall also be guilty of the offence.