§ Mr. Dempseyasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish in the Official Report details showing the number of registered blind persons in employment in each of the regions of the United Kingdom; and what these totals represent as a percentage of the total number of registered blind persons in each respective region.
§ Mr. John GrantI am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that information is not available about the number of registered blind people in employment.
§ Mr. Dempseyasked the Secretary of State for Employment if he will publish in the Official Report details showing the number of individuals registering for
556Wgives the percentage change in average gross earnings and the percentage change over the same period in each country's consumer price index. The comparison of the two indices may not indicate the changes in the real economic well-being of industrial workers in the different countries, since it does not take account of the different taxation arrangements in the countries and the varying provisions of social benefits in cash and kind provided by the state. In addition, there are differences in the way the countries compile the data.
employment as blind persons in each of the regions of the United Kingdom.
§ Mr. John GrantI am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that on 8th April 1976, the latest date on which figures are available, the number of blind people registering for employment in Great Britain was:
South East 268 East Anglia 42 South West 66 North 57 North West 138 Yorkshire and Humberside 76 East Midlands 58 West Midlands 75 Wales 34 Scotland 74 NOTE. The figures relate only to those blind people who were registered as dissabled under the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944.