My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Yvette Cooper) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.

During Department for Work and Pensions Oral Questions on Monday 19 October, in response to a supplementary from the honourable Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Joan Humble), I said that:

“My honourable friend is right, and we must ensure that we also help young people who have different disabilities and need additional help with different ways into work. She may also be interested to know that the proportion of disabled people in work has increased by about 7 per cent, to more than 50 per cent, in the past eight years, so for the first time there are more disabled people of working age in work than there are out of work—precisely because of the kind of programme that my honourable friend talks about”. (Official Report, col. 630).

The correct Answer is as follows:

“My honourable friend is right, and we must ensure that we also help young people who have different disabilities and need additional help with different ways into work. She may also be interested to know that the proportion of disabled people in work is now 47.5 per cent compared with 42 per cent 10 years ago and over half of working age disabled people are now in work or claim to be actively seeking employment—precisely because of the kind of programme that my honourable friend talks about”.

I apologise to the honourable Lady for these inadvertent errors.