§ Mr. SteinbergTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many registered disabled people are living in Durham. [143911]
§ Mr. WillsThe introduction of the employment provisions of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 (DDA) coincided with the abolition of the option to register as disabled under the provisions of the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944. The data now collected by the Government include the number of disabled people as defined by the 1995 Act. The labour force survey is used to provide a quarterly update of the number of people of working age with a current disability as defined by the Act and their employment status. The 1995 Act uses a wider, more inclusive definition of disability than the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944.
According to the labour force survey (Summer 2000), there are 60,000 people of working age with a long-term disability as defined by the DDA living in Durham County. They account for 19 per cent. of the total working age population of Durham.
There are no equivalent statistics for children and young people below the age of 16 or for people above state pensionable age who are disabled as defined by the 1995 Act.