PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Employment: Disability (8 July 2021)

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent discussions she has had with the Minister for Women and Equalities on supporting the creation of employment opportunities for disabled people in (a) Enfield North constituency, (b) Greater London and (c) England.

Asked by:
Feryal Clark (Labour)

The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has not had any recent discussions with the Minister for Women and Equalities on supporting the creation of employment opportunities for disabled people in the specified areas. However, the Government is committed to improving the lives of disabled people, and a range of initiatives are supporting disabled people to stay in and enter work.

These include the Work and Health Programme, the Intensive Personalised Employment Support 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. The Government has also increased the number of specialist Disability Employment Advisors in Jobcentres.

In addition, the DWP will shortly publish a Green Paper on health and disability support which will consider how we can improve our current service, provide extra support to navigate the system and seek to better understand how we can improve the current employment support offer. The Government will also publish the National Disability Strategy later this year which will be informed by insights from the lived experience of disabled people, focusing on the issues that disabled people say affect them the most in all aspects and phases of life, including employment.

Answered by:
Justin Tomlinson (Conservative)
15 July 2021