HC Deb 01 July 1975 vol 894 cc1165-6
3. Mr. Gould

asked the Secretary of State for Employment what information he has about the numbers of firms which now meet their quotas for the employment of disabled people, broken down on a regional basis.

Mr. Harold Walker

As the reply contains a table of figures I will, with permission, circulate in the Official Report a regional analysis of compliance with the statutory quota scheme for the employment of disabled people.

Mr. Gould

Does the Minister accept that the available figures demonstrate the deficiencies in existing legislation which has clearly failed in its objective? What does he propose to do about it?

Mr. Walker

My hon. Friend will know that the statutory quota scheme has been under review since the last Conservative Government issued a consultative document at the end of 1973. I hope I shall be able to present our conclusions on that review to the House very shortly.

Mr. Marten

Would it not be an encouragement to firms if, for example, the Queen's Award to Industry was made only to firms which employed their quota of disabled people?

Mr. Walker

This is an interesting point that has been put to me before. Anything which encourages the employment of more disabled people has to be considered very carefully, but I doubt whether the hon. Member's suggestion matches the needs of what he and I agree is a very unhappy situation.

Mr. James Lamond

Has my hon. Friend received any information from the special investigations he set up in selected areas? Will he bear in mind that, in a period of rising unemployment nationally, unemployment among the disabled rises out of proportion to the rest of the community?

Mr. Walker

On my hon. Friend's latter point, there is some small comfort in the fact that the trend has been contrary to what he suggested. Unemployment in the country has risen fairly sharply over the last 12 months, but the number of unemployed among the regis- tered disabled has risen from 10.4 per cent. in June 1974 to 12.1 per cent. in June 1975.

My hon. Friend referred to the exercise on which we embarked last December of selecting some pockets of high levels of unemployed disabled persons, or low levels of compliance with the statutory quota. That exercise has just been concluded. I have the results, but they still need evaluation and analysis. The result seems to me prima facie to be rather discouraging and disappointing in terms of the additional jobs created for registered disabled persons.

Mr. Dudley Smith

Is the Minister aware that there would not be enough disabled persons to go around if every firm were to fulfil its statutory quota? In view of what the Minister said when he was in opposition, does he not accept that the Act is now grossly out of date and in urgent need of revision? Does he accept that there must be some new impetus to provide good employment prospects for the disabled?

Mr. Walker

The hon. Member does not recall accurately the point I used to make when I was in opposition. My point was concerned with more rigorous enforcement of the statutory quota scheme. In the light of the experience gained from the exercise to which I have just referred, I think we are compelled to look again at whether that is the right approach. I think that the hon. Member is correct in his assertion of the need to look again at whether statutory provisions are appropriate and adequate for the needs of the present situation.

Following is the information as at May 1974:—

Number of firms reviewed Number fulfilling the quota
London and South East Region 13,868 4,367
Eastern and Southern Region 6,823 2,441
South Western Region 3,781 1,655
Midland Region 9,833 4,057
Yorkshire and Humberside Region 4,952 2,515
North Western Region 6,510 3,026
Northern Region 2,224 1,045
Scotland 5,369 2,012
Wales 1,853 989
Total 55,213 22,107

National and regional information from this year's annual review is not yet available.