HC Deb 16 May 1989 vol 153 cc152-3
4. Mr. Wareing

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment what plans he has to eradicate discrimination against disabled people in employment and seeking employment.

Mr. Lee

It is in the employer's interest to adopt good policies and practices on the employment of people with disabilities. My Department will continue to encourage and help them to do so through its disablement advisory service and other appropriate media.

Mr. Wareing

The Minister's Department has not been very successful. Does the Minister realise that only 31 per cent. of disabled people below pension age are in jobs? Will he explain why it is illegal to discriminate in employment against a person because of colour or sex, but it remains lawful for any employer to discriminate against a person because of his or her disability? Will the Government legislate to do something about that problem?

Mr. Lee

On the hon. Gentleman's first point, he will know that statistics are rather thin in that area—

Mr. Wareing

There is the OPCS survey.

Mr. Lee

The Department has therefore commissioned a study to provide information on the numbers, the distribution, the characteristics and the needs of people with disabilities in the labour market. We hope to have the results by the year end.

The hon. Gentleman knows, because he has repeatedly asked for legislation in this area, that the Government do not favour a legislative approach.

Mr. Evennett

Does my hon. Friend agree that it is much better to encourage employers and to give them practical help than to legislate?

Mr. Lee

My hon. Friend is right. Through our mainstream programmes during 1987–88, we helped about 117,000 people at a cost of £193 million, and through our programme specifically geared to help the disabled we helped 78,000 people at a cost of £135 million.

Mr. Alfred Morris

Do not the OPCS figures referred to by my hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, West Derby (Mr. Wareing) shout of discrimination against disabled people? Is the hon. Gentleman aware that even those with jobs were found to be mainly on very low pay? What is the hon. Gentleman's response to the report of Dr. Eileen Fry on discrimination against disabled people in employment? What does the hon. Gentleman have to say about the case that is known to the Royal Association for Disability and Rehabilitation—RADAR—where a public employer recruited a disabled young woman only to exclude her from the superannuation scheme because of her disability?

Mr. Lee

If the right hon. Gentleman writes to me about that particular case, I will look into it. On his earlier points, I repeat that the Government do not favour the legislative route. Nevetheless, as the right hon. Gentleman knows, we have instituted a major review of our whole approach to the disabled in employment and, of course, there is the earlier study to which I referred.