To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many nationalised industries and public authorities ensure that at least 3 per cent. of their employees are registered disabled people.

The figures showing the quota position of a range of individual public sector employers are published with their agreement in the Employment Gazette. In June 1989, the latest date for which figures are available, 26 of these firms employed 3 per cent. or more registered people with disabilities.

To ask the Secretary of State for Employment how many prosecutions there have been in the last 15 years against employers who fail to fulfil their obligations under the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944; and if he will make a statement.

There have been three prosecutions in the last 15 years against employers who have failed to fulfil their obligations under the Disabled Persons (Employment) Act 1944. The policy of successive Governments has been to use education and persuasion to secure and improve the policies and practices of all employers in relation to the employment of people with disabilities and to bring prosecutions only as a last resort.