Oral Answers to Questions

David Mackintosh Excerpts

Monday 21st November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Damian Hinds]

My right hon. Friend makes a very good point. We know that many more disabled people want to get into work, and one route is through self-employment. I am pleased to be able to say that more than a fifth of the participants in the new enterprise allowance scheme are people with a declared disability, but there is a great deal more we can do.

[David Mackintosh (Northampton South) (Con)]

3. What steps the Government are taking to ensure that employers are supported in recruiting and retaining disabled people.

[Justin Tomlinson (North Swindon) (Con)]

15. What steps the Government are taking to ensure that employers are supported in recruiting and retaining disabled people.

[The Minister for Disabled People, Health and Work (Penny Mordaunt)]

We already support employers through the new Disability Confident scheme, Access to Work and the Fit for Work service. Other measures are planned. The Green Paper consultation will provide further insight into how we can support employers and their disabled employees.

[David Mackintosh]

What advice can my hon. Friend offer to people such as my constituent Jehanzaib Sabih, who is deaf, so struggles to speak on the telephone, worked hard to obtain a university degree and yet is really struggling to find employment in the financial sector?

[Penny Mordaunt]

A lot of our bespoke expertise lies in the partner organisations we work with. If my hon. Friend contacts Sarah Holtham, who is the work coach at the Northampton jobcentre, she will facilitate a meeting with Deafconnect for him and his constituent. It also does a huge amount of work getting placements in the financial services sector, in particular with Nationwide, whose headquarters are in his constituency.