The Disability Rights Commission has threatened 65 public organisations including fire services, councils, colleges and probation boards with legal action after accusing them of failing to comply with new disability laws.

The commission said the organisations had missed a deadline of last December for producing a disability equality scheme.

Under the scheme organisations were supposed to show what measures they were taking to help disabled people get better access to education, facilities such as sports centres, training and jobs.

Among the organisations "named and shamed" today were a number of Government services including UK Trade and Investment and the Forensic Science Service.

Sir Bert Massie, the commission’s chairman, said: “The disability equality duty is a real opportunity to transform disabled people’s experiences of the society we live in.

“I am really pleased that the public sector as a whole has done a great job in responding to the requirements of the duty, with more than 96 per cent of organisations producing a scheme.

"The question is - why have a small minority failed to do so? We will now be considering issuing compliance notices to offending authorities which could lead to court action.”

The list of organisations, all in England, published by the commission includes a number of museums, probation boards in Greater Manchester, Hampshire, Merseyside and Hertfordshire, Channel 4 Television, local authorities in areas including Norwich and West Somerset, fire services in Cumbria, Lincolnshire, Nottinghamshire and Staffordshire, NHS Trusts and sixth form colleges and universities.

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