§ Mr. Stephen TwiggTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment what percentage of his Department's staff were(a) registered disabled, (b) women, (c) from ethnic minorities and (d) from (i) independent, (ii) grammar and (iii) other schools in (1) 1970, (2) 1979, (3) 1989 and (4) 1999. [106762]
§ Mr. WillsDetails of the percentage of the Department's staff who were registered disabled, women and from ethnic minorities in 1999 are given below and comprise staff in DfEE Head Office sites, the Employment Service and DfEE staff working in the Government Office network. The figures for permanent and temporary (casual) staff are shown separately.
Permanent staff
387W
- There were a total of 36,934 permanent staff employed in DfEE at 1 April 1999 of whom:
- 1,933 had declared a disability, which is equal to 5.4 per cent. of the total number
- 27,296 were women, which is equal to 73.9 per cent. of the total number
- 2,317 were known to be from an ethnic minority background, which is equal to 6.3 per cent. of the total number.
Temporary (casual) staff
- There were a total of 3,539 temporary (casual) staff employed in DfEE at 1 April 1999 of whom:
- 52 had declared a disability, which is equal to 1.5 per cent. of the total number
- 2,279 were women, which is equal to 64 per cent of the total number
- 102 were known to be from an ethnic minority background, which is equal to 2.9 per cent. of the total number.
The provisions in the Disability Discrimination Act, 1995, replace the former quota scheme, the designated employment scheme and the requirement to register as a disabled person. Instead, individuals may now voluntarily declare a disability under the definitions contained in the Act; this is the basis for the information given.
DfEE (in line with the Commission for Racial Equality guidelines) asks staff to voluntarily declare their ethnicity in order to monitor progress against its Equal Opportunities Action Plan. The figures reflect the position for those who have provided this information. We are unable to supply details of the percentage of the Department's staff who were registered disabled, women and from ethnic minorities in 1970, 1979 or 1989, nor statistical information on the type of school attended by staff. This is for the following two reasons:
The Department for Education and Employment (DfEE) came into existence in 1995, following Machinery of Government changes. The records retained for predecessor departments are limited and incomplete and are insufficient to provide the information requested for the three years in question. Neither does DfEE (nor did its predecessor departments) hold information centrally on the type of secondary school attended by its staff. Individual records hold the name, but not the classification, of the school.
§ Caroline FlintTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment in each of the last five years, what proportion of women employees in (i) his Department and (ii) executive agencies under the control of his Department(a) returned to work after childbirth, (b) returned to work after childbirth before the end of maternity leave, indicating the (1) time-range and (2) mean time, (c) returned to work after childbirth on reduced working hours, indicating the average hours worked and (d) returned to work after childbirth full-time and subsequently reduced their hours. [108967]
§ Mr. WillsWe are unable to answer all elements of the question because the information needed could be obtained only at disproportionate cost. However, details of the proportion of women employees in DfEE (which includes DfEE staff in Government Offices) and ES, who returned to work after childbirth in each of the last five years (part(a) of the question), is shown in the following table. The figures for 1995 include, from January to July, women in the former Department for Education and Employment Department Group who transferred to DfEE following Machinery of Government change in July 1995.
The figures are expressed as a percentage of the total number who completed maternity leave in each of the years shown. 388W
Total number taking maternity leave Percentage returning to work 1995 1,644 99.9 1996 1,641 98.1 1997 1,338 99.3 1998 1,099 100.0 1999 970 99.8