To ask the Secretary of State for Social Security what is the total number of employees in his Department; and how many are (a) black and (b) disabled.

The Department, including its agencies, asks staff to complete questionnaires on their ethnic origins on a voluntary basis. As at 1 April 1991, 3,331 of the 67,178 staff who have responded to the questionnaire were from ethnic minorities.As at 1 June 1991, the Department, including its agencies, employed 84,152 staff of whom 1,465 were registered as disabled. There is no information on staff with disabilities who choose not to register.