Employment Schemes: Disabled

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people with disabilities were on employment programmes in 2007; and what the Department's targets for obtaining jobs for people with disabilities was. (156508)

The available information is in the following tables.

*Specialist disability employment programmes 2006-07*
Programme	Number of people
Access to Work	28,500 people
New Deal for Disabled People (NDDP)	60,940 customers registered with NDDP
Work Preparation	8,100 customers started on the programme
WORKSTEP	12,800 people
Residential Training Colleges	1,140 customer starts on the programme
Remploy	10,020 disabled people supported on Workstep by Remploy

*Mainstream employment programmes—participants with a disability indicator (at February 2007)*
Programme	Number of participants
New Deal for Young People	13,650
New Deal 25+	18,330
New Deal for Lone Parents	3,720
New Deal 50+	21,360
New Deal for Partners	680
Employment Zones	6,730
Note: Figures are rounded to the nearest 10.

The Department does not obtain jobs for people, but rather provides advice and support to help people engage with the labour market. Although there are no specific targets, the Department has a Public Service Agreement to significantly increase the employment rate of disabled people and reduce the difference between their employment rate and the overall rate in the three years to March 2008.

Volume 464: debated on Monday 8 October 2007