§ Mr. GoodmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if he will set out the number of employees in his Department who have a disability, broken down by disability type. [148992]
§ Mr. Charles ClarkeMy Department is an active member of the Cabinet Office led Civil Service Disability Working Group, which was set up in January 2003 to look at disability collection issues, monitoring and non-declaration.
Over 5 per cent. (280) of staff employed in my Department have recorded a disability.
Information on the numbers by type of disability is set out in the table. Details are not published where the numbers are below five in order to protect the privacy of the individual, in line with Exemption 12 of the Code of Practice on Access to Government Information.
Disability type Number Hearing impairment 43 Learning difficulties 7 Mental illness 5 Mobility impairment 47 Physical coordination difficulties 5 Reduced physical capacity 51 Visual impairment 20 Unknown disability 66 The statistics exclude DfES staff in the Government Office network with a recorded disability where a breakdown by disability type could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.