§ Mr. GoodmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what progress has been made in meeting targets for the proportion of people with disabilities in senior posts in his Department. [145999]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeMy Department's target is that by 2005, 3 per cent. of those in the senior civil service should be people with disabilities.
Statistical information about senior civil servants with disabilities is available on the Civil Service Statistics web-site at: http://www.civil-service.gov.uk/ 898W statistics/documents/pdf/disability-octOS.pdf. This shows that as of 1 April 2003, the proportion of senior civil servants with declared disabilities is 2.3 per cent.
As there are less than five members of the senior civil service in my Department with a declared disability, the actual number is not published in order to protect the privacy of the individual in line with exemption 12 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.