asked Her Majesty's Government:How much money has been spent by the Department of Employment out of its research funds on subjects connected with the employment of those suffering from, respectively, mental handicap, physical handicap, visual handicap and hearing handicap.

My department has not paid for research on these subjects. I am informed by the Manpower Services Commission that most of their research projects in this area cover a number of disabilities and so it is not possible to disaggregate expenditure by each of the categories requested. However, total expenditure from MSC's research funds on the employment of disabled people for each of the last five financial years is as follows:

1975–76	£39,000
1976–77	£ 5,700
1977–78	£26,800
1978–79	£45,000
1979–80	£13,500

This excludes the cost of internal research carried out by the commission's own staff and the costs of the special research unit on employment rehabilitation.