HC Deb 29 January 2004 vol 417 cc485-6W
Mr. Goodman

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs if she will set out the number of employees in her Department who have a disability, broken down by disability type. [148986]

Alun Michael

The number of staff who have informed or declared a disability and listed by type of disabilities are as follows. The types of disabilities are greater than the number of staff declaring a disability as some staff have declared more than one:

Disability Number of staff
Angina —
Asthma 60
Continence 6
Diabetes 27
Dyslexia 20
Epilepsy 15
Eyesight 35
Hearing 61
Lifting/carrying/moving everyday objects 36
Manual dexterity 38
Memory or ability to concentrate, learn or understand 11
Mental illness 19
Mobility 39
Other 131
Perception of the risk of physical danger —
Physical co-ordination 16
Severe disfigurement 10
Speech 5
Total disabilities 535
Total staff 392

Figures less than five have been suppressed for reasons of confidentiality. Statistics on the disability profile of the civil service as a whole from April 2003 show that 3.6 per cent. of the civil service overall had a declared disability (1.7 per cent. in the SCS). Corporate data on disability by disability type is not published. Further data can be found on www.civil-service.gov.uk/ statistics. The civil service anonymous Diversity Survey (2001) showed that 15 per cent. of respondents were declaring a disability or long-standing illness against a declared level of 4 per cent. staff with a disability. This could show that disabled staff are more likely to take part in the survey, or that many people who consider themselves to be disabled or have a long standing illness have not declared this to their employer. This level of disability is consistent with the Spring 2003 Labour Force Survey which reported a level of 12.9 per cent. disability in the economically active population.

Cabinet Office set up a Disability Working Group in January 2003 to look at disability collection issues, monitoring and non-declaration. Defra are represented on this group. The group has recently completed a consultation exercise —the outcome of which will be made available in due course.