§ Mr. Ashleyasked the Secretary of State for Employment what estimate he made of the cost of listing the 30 employment exchange areas with the highest rate of employment of registered disabled people; and on what criteria he considers this cost to be disproportionate.
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§ Mr. John GrantThe following are the factors which I have taken into account in making my estimate of the cost. I am advised by the Manpower Services Commission that no comprehensive information is available about the number of registered disabled people in employment. Theoretically it should be possible to obtain this information by subtracting the number of registered disabled people unemployed from the number whose names are on the register of disabled persons maintained at each local office. However, the register of disabled persons can never be fully up to date. It will at any time contain the names of people who, because of ill health or other reasons, have left the employment field, or who have since died.
Subject to the limitations of the register figures it would be possible to calculate the employment rate in a local office area by representing the notional figure as a percentage of the working population in that area. But to identify the 30 local office areas with the highest employment rate would require a separate calculation for each of the 980 local offices of the Employment Service Agency in Great Britain. From this I think it will be evident that the information could be provided only at considerable expense.