§ Mrs. Chalkerasked the Secretary of State for the Home Department what action he is taking to increase the number of registered disabled persons employed in the court service and the Home Office; and when he expects to achieve the 3 per cent. target in each case.
§ Mr. Merlyn ReesMy Department is always ready to consider sympathetically applications for employment from disabled persons. But more than half the posts in the Home Office are in the prison and immigration services and are unsuitable for disabled persons, and there is a shortage of disabled applicants for the remainder. The Department is therefore, unlikely to reach the standard quota of 3 per cent. in the near future. Employment in the court service is, in respect of magistrates' courts, a matter for the Magistrates' Courts' Committee concerned, and in respect of the higher courts the responsibility of my noble and learned Friend the Lord Chancellor.