§ Mr. Wigleyasked the Paymaster General how many officers in his Department, including local offices, deal totally or mainly with issues relating to the employment of disabled people; and how this figure compares to the corresponding figures five years ago.
§ Mr. LangThere are currently around 1,440 officers in the Department of Employment group dealing totally or mainly with issues relating to the employment of disabled people. The corresponding figure five years ago was 559W around 1,820, but since then there have been a number of important changes in the way this work is organised. In particular other mainstream employment service staff have been given responsibility for helping disabled people whose needs are similar to other job seekers; and thus many of them individually spend part of their time on such work.