Inclusion Scotland

Parliamentary Questions

Employment

November 2007

Bob Doris (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what figures are held in respect of the number of adults of working age who are physically disabled but able to work also expressed as a percentage of (a) all adults and (b) the total workforce.

Jim Mather: Data on the number of people who are physically disabled but still able to work are not held centrally.
However information on people who declare themselves as disabled using the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) definition, people who declare themselves as work limiting disabled and people who declare themselves as both DDA and work limiting disabled is available from the Annual Population Survey.

Table 1 shows the number of people with physical disabilities in each of the three categories described above and also expresses these figures as a proportion of all working age people.

Table 1 People Declaring Physical Disabilities in the Working Age Population

Source: Annual Population Survey: January to December 2006.
Notes (Table 1):
1. Working age is defined as males aged 16 to 64 and females aged 16 to 59.
2. Definitions are based on self-classification.
3. Those declaring mental impairments have been excluded from this analysis.

Table 2 shows the number of people with physical disabilities in each of the three categories who are in employment and also expresses these figures as a proportion of all people in employment.
As these estimates are taken from a sample survey they are subject to a degree of error.

Table 2 People in Employment Declaring a Physical Disability

Source: Annual Population Survey: January December 2006.
Notes (Table 2):
1. People in employment includes employees, those who are self-employed, people on government training schemes and unpaid family workers.
2. Definitions are based on self-classification.

Bob Doris (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of physically disabled adults of working age are in (a) full-time and (b) part-time employment.

Jim Mather: Information on people who declare themselves as disabled using the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) definition, people who declare themselves as work limiting disabled and people who declare themselves as both DDA and work limiting disabled is available from the Annual Population Survey.

Table 1 shows the percentage of people in each of these three categories who are in full-time and part-time employment.

Table 1 Full-Time and Part-Time Employment of those with Physical Disabilities

Source: Annual Population Survey: January to December 2006.
Notes:
1. Working age is defined as males aged 16 to 64 and females aged 16 to 59.
2. Definitions are based on self-classification.

George Foulkes (Lothians) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what percentage of its staff are registered disabled; how this relates to its targets for employing disabled staff, and what action it is taking to increase the number of disabled people it employs.

John Swinney: Targets for employing disabled staff in the Scottish Government vary according to pay band. The targets are currently set for April 2008, and the following table shows progress across the bands at October 2007.

The provision of such information is voluntary. Therefore, the overall figure is calculated for all staff, while the known figure is calculated for those who have provided an answer to our monitoring questions regarding disability.

Bob Doris (Glasgow) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many physically disabled individuals there are working in each Scottish Government department.

John Swinney: The following table sets out the number of staff who have declared that they have a physical disability. The figures are for core permanent staff working in the Scottish Government at 3 November 2007 and are broken down by the business areas line managed by each of the five Scottish Government Directors-General (DGs) and the Permanent Secretary respectively.