Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to help increase the representation of disabled people in the workforce.

The National Disability Strategy, the Health and Disability Support Green Paper and the Health is Everyone’s Business response, published in July this year, together demonstrate this Government’s commitment to supporting disabled people and those with long-term health conditions to live full and independent lives, including through employment. In 2017, we set a goal to see one million more disabled people in work by 2027. In the first four years since setting that goal, the number of disabled people in employment has increased by 850,000.

A range of DWP initiatives are currently supporting disabled people to start, stay and succeed in work. These include the Work and Health Programme, the Intensive Personalised Employment Support (IPES) programme, Access to Work, Disability Confident and support in partnership with the health system, including Employment Advice in NHS Improving Access to Psychological Therapy services.