§ Mr. WigleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list(a) the Government Departments, (b) next steps agencies and (c) public bodies which have been issued with certificates exempting them from fulfilling quota obligations on the employment of disabled people in each of the last three years.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythIt has been the policy of successive Governments to treat as confidential information about the issue of permits under the quota scheme to individual employers and not to disclose it without their permission. Government Departments and agencies are not legally bound by quota legislation and do not have to apply for permits.
§ Mr. WigleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment if he will list those employers currently utilising his Department's two-tick logo denoting good practice in the employment of disabled people.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythResponsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from M. E. G. Fogden to Mr. Dafydd Wigley, dated 16 December 1993:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your Question requesting a list of those employers currently utilising the disability symbol (the "two-ticks logo") denoting good practice in the employment of disabled people.Unfortunately I am unable to enclose a full national list with this reply. As you may know, the disability symbol was first introduced in 1990. It was reviewed towards the end of 1992 and, in order to clarify its meaning and improve its impact, we have introduced changes to the initiative which came into effect on 1 June this year. We now require employers using the symbol to make five specific commitments to good practice in the areas of recruiting, consulting and retaining disabled people, developing disability awareness and reviewing the effectiveness of the commitments in the organisation.These changes have meant that the earlier symbol users needed to re-examine their practices and, in some cases, to introduce changes before confirming whether or not they would continue to use the symbol. My field disability service has been working to contact all symbol users, discuss the new commitments and confirm which employers would continue under the new arrangements. Former symbol users not able to make the commitments have been asked to cease using the symbol.Although we have recently compiled a draft list of symbol users throughout the country, we are not yet satisfied that old users of the symbol who are not continuing as symbol users have been fully weeded out. It is, of course, very important that we are able to provide a full and accurate list of organisations using the symbol and we are reluctant to publish it until we have had a further opportunity to check its accuracy.The checking process is now in hand and I would hope to write to you again with a full national list as soon as it is practicable. In the meantime, I enclose for your information a 853W checked list of large company symbol users with whom our Major Organisations Development Unit has been working closely.Employing people with a disabilityThe disability symbol
Companies using the symbol
- Anglia Television
- B and Q
- Bank of England
- Bank of Scotland
- Barclays Bank
- The Body Shop
- Boots (dealt with by Nottinghamshire PACT)
- British Nuclear Fuels
- Central TV
- Channel 4
- Ford Motor Company
- Forte plc
- George Wimpey
- Granada Television
- Halifax Building Society
- IBM
- Iceland
- John Menzies
- Lloyds Bank
- London Weekend Television
- Midland Bank
- National Westminster Bank
- Nationwide Building Society
- Pearl Assurance
- Pizza Hut
- Post Office Corporation
- Rank Organisation
- Royal Bank of Scotland
- Safeways
- Sainsburys
- Tesco
- Woolwich Building Society
Note:—The above list includes symbol users among the major companies dealt with by the Employment Service Major Organisations Development Unit. It does not constitute a full national list of symbol users. (Correct at 15 December 1993).
§ Mr. WigleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Employment what has been the total number of certificates issued to companies in each year since 1979 allowing exemptions from quota obligations for the employment of disabled people.
§ Mr. Michael ForsythResponsibility for the subject of the question has been delegated to the Employment Service agency under its chief executive. I have asked him to arrange for a reply to be given.
Letter from M. E. G. Fogden to Mr. Dafydd Wigley, dated 16 December 1993:
The Secretary of State has asked me to reply to your Question about how many certificates allowing exemptions from quota obligations for the employment of disabled people have been issued to companies in each year since 1979.It may help if I briefly explain employers' duties and obligations under the provisions of the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944.The Act places a duty on employers who have twenty or more workers to employ a quota of registered disabled people. It is not an offence to be below Quota. However, when in this situation, an employer has a further duty under the Act to engage suitable registered disabled people if any are available when vacancies arise. An employer who is below Quota must not engage anyone other than registered disabled person without first obtaining a permit to do so, and must not discharge a registered disabled person without reasonable cause.Permits may be issued to authorise the engagement of one or more people for specific vacancies. However the majority of employers who are granted permits receive bulk permits. These authorise the engagement of a specified number of people who are 854W not registered as disabled, during a period of up to six months. Bulk permits do not grant exemption from employers' duties and obligations under the Act.We do not collect figures centrally on the numbers of permits issued overall. I am, therefore, unable to provide the precise information you asked for. However, I am able to provide figures on the numbers of employers that were below Quota on 1 June each year from 1979 onwards, who had been issued with permits at some stage in the previous 12 months. This information is in the attached table.I hope this is helpful.
Number of employers below quota on 1 June issued with permits in the previous 12 months Year Numbers 1979 22,412 1980 22,001 1981 21,183 1982 19,796 1983 18,536 1984 18,769 1985 18,681 1986 18,840 1987 18,577 1988 18,594 1989 18,530 1990 18,036 1991 17,649 1992 15,871 1993 16,684