§ Mrs. MahonTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland what is the total number of employees in his Department; and how many are(a) black and (b) disabled.
§ Dr. MawhinneyOn 30 November 1991 there were 29,860 people in the non-industrial grades of the Northern Ireland civil service and 213 members of the home civil service working in the Northern Ireland Office.
There were 1,284 staff in the Northern Ireland Civil Service (4.3 per cent. of the service) who self-reported a disability. Of these, 431 (1.4 per cent. of the service) were, or had been, registered as disabled. In addition, 35 registered disabled people were working in the Northern Ireland civil service under the sheltered placement scheme. There were no registered disabled staff in the Northern Ireland Office.
The Race Relations Act 1976 does not apply to Northern Ireland and the Northern Ireland civil service does not, therefore, monitor the ethnic origin of staff. The 109 London-based staff of the Northern Ireland Office have, however, been invited to take part in an ethnic monitoring survey and, of those who responded, 14 described themselves as belonging to an ethnic minority.