§ Mr. BercowTo ask the Secretary of State for International Development for what reasons the Service Delivery Agreement target to have 3.3 per cent. of senior Civil Service posts filled with staff with disabilities has not been met. [174140]
Mr. Gareth ThomasDFID is an equal opportunities employer. We value diversity. DFID's policy on recruitment is to stimulate and encourage applications from all sections of the community specifically including candidates with disabilities. We word our advertisements accordingly. Final selection, however, is on merit, and the composition of the Senior Civil Service group is a reflection of appointments made on this basis, through open competition or internal promotion.
There are currently 79 members of the Senior Civil Service in DFID, so performance against the target is very sensitive to small changes in the actual number of staff with disabilities in post.
In general, DFID is aware that there are more disabled people in the Department than declare their impairment and is actively pursuing a number of measures to develop a more open culture on disability. However, it will remain the individual's choice to define themselves as disabled or not.