Hamilton’s role is voluntary and carries a maximum term of three years.

As an industry leader, he has been charged with helping to drive accessibility and quality improvements for both customers and employees in the insurance sector.

The overall national disability strategy the government launched today is backed by £1.6bn of funding and, among its various plans, has touted a requirement for businesses with more than 250 staff members to report on the number of disabled employees on their payroll.

It is also investing £300m in children with special education needs and disabilities.

The minister for disabled people, health and work Justin Tomlinson says: “I am very excited to welcome this incredible, impressive group of people as new disability and access ambassadors.

“They will help support the existing team with our programme to increase access for disabled people across a wide range of private sector industries, and I am really looking forward to working with them.”

And Hamilton comments: “I’m delighted and honoured to have the chance to build on the work done by the outgoing ‘Insurance Disability and Access Ambassador’ Johnny Timpson and others, where he has created a coalition of the willing.  It’s good to know that Johnny remains a force for good in this space.”

“As an industry, we have to be ready to listen, to continue to challenge outdated perceptions, acknowledge progress made in some areas but recognise there is still a long way to go. We need to be seen as transparent, fair and trusted, where our focus is on doing everything we can to best support our customers and employees with disabilities.

“We are likely to see a post pandemic ‘reset’ in so many parts of society and the insurance industry has a big role to play in ‘Building back fairer’.

“There is a real opportunity to bring even closer together the idea of access to insurance both for potential employees and customers.”