Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the implications of his policies of the conclusions on the increasing employment penalty facing people with a disability as set out in the recent OECD report, Entrepreneurship and Self-employment by People with Disabilities by Professor John Kitching.

While we welcome the paper provided by OECD as an addition to the evidence base relating to disability employment, as the paper itself notes, disability is diverse, disabled people have diverse characteristics, and there are differing models or definitions of disability.

The Department’s officials and analysts make use of a wide evidence base when working to develop strategy and policy and Professor Kitching’s paper quotes from 2007 DWP research with which they are familiar.

DWP monitors disability employment on a quarterly basis using the Labour Force Survey (LFS), and uses LFS data to inform the development of new policy initiatives.