HC Deb 06 June 1991 vol 192 cc306-7W
Mr. Fearn

To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what percentage of adults is visually impaired;

(2) what percentage of the population has impaired hearing;

(3) what percentage of disabled people is receiving 24-hour help.

Mr. Dorrell

Information on the prevalence of different types of disability, and such information as is available centrally about the proportion of disabled people who receive 24-hour help, is given in the reports published in 1988–89 in the survey of disability carried out by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys. Copies are available in the Library.

Mr. Fearn

To ask the Secretary of State for Health what percentage of adults are registered as disabled in Britain.

Mr. Dorrell

At 31 March 1990, approximately 3.2 per cent. of people aged 16 years and over were registered with local authority social services departments in England as being physically disabled. Equivalent figures relating to Wales and Scotland are a matter for my right hon. Friends the Secretaries of State for Wales and Scotland.