§ Mr. Alfred Morrisasked the Paymaster General if he is satisfied with the priority being given to disabled people within the European social fund; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. LeeNo. The European Commission's guidelines for applications to the European social fund in 1987 removed the possibility of support from the fund for schemes providing vocational training for disabled people, combined with a substantial degree of adaptation of workplaces. The United Kingdom and a number of other Member states opposed both this change and another put forward by the European Commission which would have limited social fund support for other measures for disabled people capable of working in the open labour market to the "absolute priority" regions of the Community. In the event the latter proposal was not pursued.
Notwithstanding the narrowing of the possibilities for fund support for disabled people under the 1987 guidelines, United Kingdom applications for such support have increased from 188 for 1986 to 206 for 1987, with a corresponding increase in the total value of assistance sought from £28 million to £49 million. In addition, disabled people are, of course, eligible to benefit from other employment and training programmes supported by the fund which are not specifically directed towards helping the disabled.
§ Mr. Alfred Morrisasked the Paymaster General if he will list for each of the last five years the amount spent on projects for disabled people within the European social fund and the proportion of total expenditure of the fund that this represented; and what are the current estimates for 1987.
§ Mr. LeeIt is not possible to list the total amount allocated from the European social fund to schemes for disabled people because some schemes specifically for young disabled people receive funding under provisions of the fund other than those specifically reserved for the214W disabled. In addition, individual disabled people may benefit from fund assistance by participating in schemes supported by the fund which are open to both the disabled and the able bodied.
The following table therefore shows for the last five years for which figures are available the assistance allocated by the fund under the specific guideline or guidelines reserved for measures to help disabled people:
Amount allocated (Millions ECU European Unit of Currency) Proportion of total allocations (per cent.) 1981 80.78 8.0 1982 122.44 8.0 1983 167.51 8.9 1984 104.36 5.6 19851 140.57 6.3 1 Provisional. Applications for European social fund support in 1987 are currently being considered by the European Commission and no estimate of likely allocations can be made at this stage.