Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of their Department's employees are recorded as having a disability.

Answered by Jesse Norman - Shadow Leader of the House of Commons

The representation of disabled staff within the Department is currently 8.6%, with a declaration rate of 82.4%.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the findings on concerns of general practice staff on delivering adequate level of care in winter 2023 in the Royal College of General Practitioners report entitled Fit for the Future GP Pressures 2023, published in March 2023, what steps he is taking to ensure that staff in general practice can deliver adequate levels of care in winter 2023.

Answered by Neil O'Brien - Shadow Minister (Education)

We are expanding general practice (GP) teams through the Additional Roles Reimbursement Scheme in order to create 50 million more appointments a year by 2024 and free up GPs’ time for work that only they can do. Since 2019, we have recruited over 25,000 additional staff into GPs, covering a range of roles, for example clinical pharmacists.

In the 2023/24 changes to the GP contract, we have also taken steps to streamline the Impact and Investment Fund (IIF). The remaining £246 million of the IIF will be entirely focused on improving patient experience. £172.2 million (70%) will be provided as a monthly payment to Primary Care Networks through the Capacity and Access Support Payment, and the remaining £73.8 million (30%) will be allocated by integrated care boards, according to assessment against locally agreed access improvement plans.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what proportion of their Department's employees are recorded as having a disability.

Answered by David Rutley

Latest figures show that 13% of Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) staff have disabilities which is line with the rates of the UK Economically Active Population. Regular analysis of diversity data is conducted to understand the demographics of our workforce, enable strategic decision making and review the impact of people policies. FCDO secured accreditation as a Disability Confident Leader in July 2021 and has a designated team, alongside staff networks that support workplace reasonable adjustments and Assistive Technology for employees in line with the Equality Act 2010.

Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what proportion of people employed within her Department have recorded that they have a disability.

Answered by Julia Lopez

As at 1 April 2023, 10.1% of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport’s (DCMS) employees have declared a disability. This answer does not include staff from DCMS who have moved to the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and does not include any Executive Agencies or Arms Length Bodies.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper, published on 15 March 2023, which Jobcentres are included in the trial of extra work coach support for people on universal credit and employment support allowance currently awaiting their work capability assessment and for people who have been found to have limited capability for work or work-related activity but would like help to move into work.

Answered by Tom Pursglove

Additional Work Coach Support has been trialled and it is available in all Jobcentres within 12 districts, as listed below. This is one-third of Jobcentres.

These districts are – Birmingham and Solihull, Cumbria and Lancashire, Devon and Cornwall, East London, East Scotland, Essex, Kent, Lincoln Nottingham and Rutland, Merseyside, Northumberland Tyne and Wear, South West Wales, West Scotland.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of their Department's employees are recorded as having a disability.

Answered by James Cartlidge - Shadow Secretary of State for Defence

HM Treasury annual report and accounts 2021 to 2022 is publicly available and provides information on the proportion of staff declaring a disability.

Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what proportion of their Department's employees are recorded as having a disability.

Answered by Mike Freer

The Ministry of Justice can confirm that of those staff who declared their disability status, as at the end of March 2022, 15% of MoJ staff were declared disabled.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what proportion of people employed within her Department have recorded that they have a disability.

Answered by Mark Spencer

As of 31^st December, 16.1% of Core Defra employees have recorded that they have a disability/lifelong health condition. This representation rate has been calculated by the number of staff reporting they have a disability divided by the number who have reported their disability status, excluding those with an unknown status or prefer not to say/undeclared. This is above the last published Civil Service wide figure of 13.6% (2021) of civil servants having declared a disability Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Dashboard - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Defra is a Disability Confident employer (Level 3) and has many policies in place to ensure the Civil Service is an inclusive workplace for everyone, including those who have disabilities, such as Workplace Adjustments policies, Occupational Health and Employee Assistance Programme and Employee Passports.

Defra are members of the Business Disability Forum and ensure we are always appraised of current best practice. All Defra Colleagues can also participate and receive support via our Employee led Networks, supported by our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Champions, this includes our Disability networks and Disability Boards. Defra also engages with the Cross Government Workplace Adjustments forum, to ensure we are learning from and contributing to best practice across government.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper, published on 15 March 2023, what steps his Department has taken to consult with disabled people and disabled people's organisations on flexible working since the 2019 general election.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Since December 2019, the Government has run a 12-week consultation on flexible working. As part of this exercise, we held individual and roundtable discussions with disabled people’s organisations, before publishing our response in December 2022. The response committed to legislative changes, several of which are being taken forward through the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill.

Furthermore, in April 2021, to ensure the effective representation of the views of disabled people, Scope became a member of the Flexible Working Taskforce, a partnership between Government Departments, business groups and third sector organisations set up to consider barriers to flexible working.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper, published on 15 March 2023, what requirements his Department will place on employers to consult with employees before accepting or rejecting a flexible working request; and in what way the Government will ensure that those requirements are enforced.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

The Government is pleased to support the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill which will introduce a requirement for employers to consult with an employee before rejecting their statutory flexible working request. The Bill does not specify what form the consultation should take.

The Government will work with both the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service and the Flexible Working Taskforce to develop appropriate guidance on each of the measures that the Bill will introduce.

If an employer does not handle a request as required by Part 8A of the Employment Rights Act 1996, an employee may be able to bring a claim to an Employment Tribunal.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper, published on 15 March 2023, when and in what way the Government plans to introduce the right to request flexible working from the first day of employment.

Answered by Kevin Hollinrake - Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

The Government response to the “making flexible working the default” consultation was published on 5 December 2022. It sets out that the Government will make the right to request flexible working a ‘day one’ entitlement, by removing the existing 26-week qualifying period. This change will be delivered through secondary legislation, using existing powers in the Employment Rights Act 1996.

We are committed to introducing this change alongside the measures included in the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill, which is currently progressing through Parliament.

Question to the Northern Ireland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, what proportion of their Department's employees are recorded as having a disability.

Answered by Steve Baker

As of January 2023, of the 74.2% of staff working in the Northern Ireland Office (NIO) who have completed their disability declaration information, 9.2% shared they had a disability. 4.9% of those who have declared their information have reported they ‘prefer not to say’. This data is completed anonymously by employees via our online HR system (SOP).

The Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2022 maintains our focus on mainstreaming the delivery of inclusion and achieving our key priorities as outlined in the Declaration on Government Reform. We will continue to build a more inclusive Civil Service going further than the current Equality Act provisions by building on and expanding a previous focus on Protected Characteristics to deliver for all of our people. Incorporating a broader definition of diversity (such as socioeconomic, work experience and geographic backgrounds) and embedding activity in our strategic priorities will enable the successful delivery of our corporate objectives. Disability remains a focus of this work and we continue to identify and remove barriers affecting disabled colleagues.

Representation of disabled staff is increasing at all grades, whilst this trend is positive, we remain committed to improving the representation of disabled colleagues across our workforce and in particular at our most senior grades.

All main Government departments have Disability Confident Leader (level 3) status on the Government’s Disability Confident Scheme, the highest level of accreditation. The scheme gives employers the tools to recruit, retain and develop disabled people, and acts as a catalyst for continuous improvement.

The Civil Service Workplace Adjustment Service is well established, offering specialist advice and access to a review route for disabled employees experiencing difficulties in securing the adjustments they need. The service includes a Workplace Adjustment Passport to facilitate the seamless retention of adjustments on a change of line manager, job role or move between business areas or departments.

We will continue to target action where gaps persist.

Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what proportion of their Department's employees are recorded as having a disability.

Answered by Andrew Murrison

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) publishes biannual diversity statistics on its civilian staff excluding those employed by organisations with delegated personnel functions (Trading funds, DE&S Bespoke Trading Entity, Executive Agencies, Royal Fleet Auxiliary and Locally engaged civilians (LECs)). The most recent statistics were published in December 2022 at the following link: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/mod-diversity-dashboard-october-2022.

Table 6 - Disability Representation of MOD Main Civilian Personnel shows that as at 1 October 2022, 11.5% of MOD Main civilian personnel had an active declaration of disabled.

The MOD D&I Strategy 2018-30 for its civilian workforce has specific measurable and achievable aims to increase representation of staff with a disability across the department, including the Senior Civil Service. The MOD is an accredited ‘Disability Confident Scheme Leader’ and encourages candidates with disabilities to apply to Defence.

The MOD has several initiatives to support disabled personnel across the whole of Defence, including the Defence and civilian networks and champions. The Civil Service Workplace Adjustment Service is well established, offering specialist advice and access to a review route for disabled employees experiencing difficulties in securing the adjustments they need. The service includes a Workplace Adjustment Passport to facilitate the seamless retention of adjustments on a change of line manager, job role or move between business areas.

Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what proportion of people employed within her Department have recorded that they have a disability.

Answered by Nick Gibb

Data compiled of all paid employees (headcount of 8,160) as at March 2023 shows 75.9% of staff have completed their disability declaration. Of those who have declared, 12.9% are disabled, 80.8% non-disabled, and 6.3% have selected the ‘Prefer not to say’ option.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what proportion of their Department's employees are recorded as having a disability.

Answered by Will Quince

As of 31 March 2023, there were 3,669 employees in the Department (excluding executive agencies). Of these, 1,198 people (32%) declared a disability status, 18% of whom declared they have a disability.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper, published on 15 March 2023, what steps his Department has taken to assess the adequacy of the four-week transition period from Disability Living Allowance to Personal Independence Payments at the age of 16.

Answered by Tom Pursglove

When most Disability Living Allowance (DLA) claimants reach age 16 they are invited to claim Personal Independence Payment (PIP).

To ensure continuity of payment while someone in receipt of DLA is assessed for PIP, we continue to pay their DLA at the existing rate for the entirety of the PIP assessment process. Once the PIP decision is made, the DLA continues to be paid, regardless of the PIP outcome, for four weeks following the next DLA payday. These arrangements ensure that those seeing a lower or nil award of PIP have a period in which to adjust to their new circumstances.

We have no plans to amend these arrangements.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 9 March 2023 to Written Question 156196 on Social Security Benefits: Disability, how many of those claimants had previously received Disability Living Allowance or Personal Independence Payment.

Answered by Tom Pursglove

The department aims to publish a range of information on claimants of Employment and Support Allowance and the health element of Universal Credit in due course and will pre-announce any publication in line with normal statistical practices.

Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, what proportion of their Department's employees are recorded as having a disability.

Answered by Nigel Huddleston

The Department for Business and Trade employees remain employed by their previous departments until the new Department is established by a Transfer of Functions order. Data recorded for BEIS and DIT can be found below.

For BEIS, the proportion of people employed by the Department who have recorded that they have a disability was 11% as of 28 February 2023.

For DIT, the proportion of people employed by DIT who have reported having a disability was 12% as of 28 February 2023.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper published on 15 March 2023, when his Department expects to complete its move to an IT system that will have the capability to record all assessments.

Answered by Tom Pursglove

During 2024, the department intends to move to a new telephony platform and make enhancements to the Video Assessment application, bringing the ability to record all assessments.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper published on 15 March 2023, how many people have been referred to the Work and Health Programme due to a learning disability in each of the last three years for which data is available.

Answered by Tom Pursglove

Referrals to the Work and Health Programme (WHP) are recorded in one of three groups: disability, early access, or long term unemployed. Information relating to the nature of a participant’s disability is not captured. Therefore, the information requested is not held.

WHP statistics are published quarterly, the latest set of official statistics includes data to November 2022, which can be found by selecting the link below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/work-and-health-programme-statistics

To be helpful, the table below shows the number of individuals referred to WHP who belong to the disability eligibility group over the three years prior to the end of November 2022.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper, published on 15 March 2023, what recent estimate he has made of when the small-scale testing of the severe disability group will conclude; and how many people have been included in the test.

Answered by Tom Pursglove

Testing for the Severe Disability Group is still ongoing. This policy is being tested on a small scale across a range of health conditions. We will then gather insight from service users, DWP staff, and organisations to make sure it works as intended.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper, published on 15 March 2023, what estimate he has made of when his Department's evaluation of how well telephone and video assessments are working compared to face-to-face assessments will be completed; and whether his Department has held discussions with disabled people as part of this evaluation.

Answered by Tom Pursglove

This work is currently underway and will complete later this year. As part of the wider evaluation the department has commissioned a large scale survey and is seeking a fuller understanding of claimant experience by assessment channel.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper, published on 15 March 2023, what additional work coach support is being offered to (a) people on Universal Credit and Employment Support Allowance awaiting their work capability assessment and (b) people who have been found to have limited capability for work or work-related activity but would like help to move into work as part of the initial trial across a third of Jobcentres.

Answered by Tom Pursglove

Additional Work Coach support provides increased one-to-one, personalised Work Coach support for people with health conditions receiving Universal Credit or Employment and Support Allowance to help them make progress towards and into work. In addition to direct Work Coach support, this will enable disabled people and people with health conditions to access wider skills support and our employment programmes earlier.

Claimants awaiting their Work Capability Assessment, and claimants following their Work Capability Assessment found to have limited capability for work can receive support from their Work Coach equivalent to 30 minutes every fortnight. These appointments are tailored to the individual’s needs using the most appropriate channel for support including face to face, telephone, video conference, or digital appointments for Universal Credit customers.

Claimants that have been found to have limited capability for work and work-related activity, who want support, will be able to access support from their Work Coach equivalent to 30 minutes every month.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department took to engage with people with learning disabilities in its consultation on the Health and Disability Green Paper.

Answered by Tom Pursglove

As well as receiving over 4,500 written responses to the Health and Disability Green Paper consultation, we held over 40 consultation events with disabled people, people with health conditions and their representatives. These included both virtual and face-to-face events, with events in Scotland, Wales and every region of England, to make sure we were hearing a variety of views, including from people with learning disabilities.

Many charities and organisations helped us to run events by organising for their users to attend and speak to us about the areas of the Green Paper that were most important to them. We are very grateful to all the individuals and organisations who have contributed through this and the consultation events.

A list of the charities and organisations that took part in the consultation can be found in Annex A of Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the policy paper entitled Transforming Support: The Health and Disability White Paper, published on 15 March 2023, to which local authorities the Department has provided funding to deliver a model of supported employment to increase the employment prospects of autistic people and people with severe or specific learning disabilities.

Answered by Tom Pursglove

Autistic people and people with severe or specific learning disabilities are the least likely of all disabled people to be in work. We are providing £7.3m of grant funding to local authorities to deliver Local Supported Employment, supporting around 2,000 autistic and learning-disabled people to find and stay in work. Grant funding for LSE has been awarded to the following 23 lead local authorities in England and Wales:

• Barking and Dagenham London Borough Council
• Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council
• Bradford Metropolitan District Council
• Cheshire West and Chester Council
• City of Cardiff Council
• Durham County Council
• Gloucestershire County Council
• Hertfordshire County Council
• Kent County Council
• Kirklees Metropolitan Borough Council
• Lancashire County Council
• Leicester City Council
• Lincolnshire County Council
• Norfolk County Council
• Oxfordshire County Council
• Pembrokeshire County Council
• Salford City Council
• Sandwell Metropolitan Borough Council
• Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council
• Southampton City Council
• Surrey County Council
• The Council of the City of Wakefield
• Tower Hamlets London Borough Council

In three areas, local authorities are working together by forming a cluster to provide this support, taking the total number of local authorities to 28. These are:

• Kent County Council are working with:

o Medway Council

• Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council are working with:

o Doncaster Metropolitan Borough Council

o Sheffield City Council

• Pembrokeshire County Council are working with:

o Carmarthenshire County Council

o Ceredigion County Council

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of their Department's employees are recorded as having a disability.

Answered by Mims Davies - Shadow Minister (Women)

As of 28^th February 2023, 19.51% of current headcount declared that they were disabled.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 30 January to Question 131286 on Disability: Government Assistance, what recent progress his Department has made on launching the consultation on the Disability Action Plan.

Answered by Tom Pursglove

We are planning to consult on the Disability Action Plan this summer and to publish the final plan once we have fully considered the consultation responses. This consultation in the summer will be an opportunity for everyone - disabled people, disabled people’s organisations, other interested parties - to have their say on the Disability Action Plan. It will be fully accessible to ensure that disabled people can take part. We will consider all responses to the consultation carefully before publishing the final Disability Action Plan.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the impact of changes in the level of social care workforce train and retain funding on charitable and not-for-profit providers.

Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

No assessments have been made.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment his Department has made of the impact of changes in the level of social care workforce train and retain funding on the number of social care vacancies.

Answered by Helen Whately - Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions

No assessments have been made.

Question

To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March to Question 161350 on Disability Unit: Staff, what proportion of staff (a) did not declare their disability status and (b) declared that they would prefer not to say in each year for which data is available.

Answered by Maria Caulfield

9% of staff in the Disability Unit did not declare their disability status (as at 31st March 2023).

We are unable to provide details of the proportion of staff who declared they would prefer not to disclose their disability status, because the small numbers involved could permit the identification of individuals.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of their Department's employees are recorded as having a disability.

Answered by Chris Philp - Shadow Home Secretary

The proportion of Home Office staff who have declared they have a disability is 12%.

Government Property Agency, ISS and outsourced workers

Found: In response to a written question (UIN 148744) tabled by Vicky Foxcroft MP, you said that during the