§ Mr. DoddsTo ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland how many people in Northern Ireland suffer from(a) serious sight loss and (b) blindness. [79424]
§ Desmond BrowneInformation is not available in the form requested.
Information collected by the Department from Health and Social Services Trusts showed that, at the end of March 2002, there were around 2,200 people in Northern Ireland registered as visually impaired.
680WDuring the financial year 2001–2002, there were 2,604 blind and 3,283 partially sighted people recorded by Trusts as being in contact with Social Services personnel.
The numbers of registrations and the numbers of people in contact with Social Services are underestimates of the total number of people with a visual impairment, as not all such people are registered or in regular contact with Social Services.