Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the disability employment gap in (a) Bournemouth and (b) the South West.

The disability employment gap is monitored and published in the official statistics release The employment of disabled people 2024 - GOV.UK in data tables LMS008, LMS009 and LMS010. This includes statistics on the South West region, parliamentary constituencies Bournemouth East, Bournemouth West and local authority area Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole.

The disability employment gap for 2020 to 2022 was 23.6 percentage points for the South West, 23.8 percentage points for Bournemouth East, and 35.2 percentage points in Bournemouth West. This compares to the UK wide disability employment gap of 27.4 percentage points for 2020 to 2022. This is the latest period for which reliable data is available.

Estimates below national level are based on smaller sample sizes and should therefore be used with caution.