Written Question · S6W-07707 · Session 6
What its position is on whether it will meet its target of halving the disability employment gap by 2038.
The question
To ask the Scottish Government what its position is on whether it will meet its target of halving the disability employment gap by 2038.
The answer
The Scottish Government has made a commitment to reduce the disability employment gap – the difference between the employment rates of disabled people and non-disabled people
- by at least half, by 2038. We set out this ambition as part of our wider disability employment strategy, “ A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People: Employment Action Plan ”. To halve the disability employment gap by 2038 will require around a 1 percentage point reduction in the gap every year.
Table 1 shows the disability employment gap for January 2016 – December 2016 to January 2021 – December 2021, sourced from the Annual Population Survey.
In 2016, our baseline year, the disability employment gap was estimated to be 37.4 percentage points. It is estimated to have reduced by 6.3 percentage points over the five years between 2016 and 2021, to 31.0 percentage points in 2021 – which is, on average, more than a 1 percentage point reduction each year. Based on performance and the labour market context to date, this suggests that we are on track to achieve our ambition to halve the gap by 2038. The reduction in the disability employment gap over this period was due to a larger rise in the employment rate of disabled people relative to the increase in the employment rate of non-disabled people.
Table 1: Disability Employment Gap, 2016 – 2021, Scotland
Disability Employment Gap (percentage points)
2016
37.4
2017
35.9
2018
35.5
2019
32.6
2020
33.4
2021
31.0
Source: Annual Population Survey, Jan-Dec datasets, ONS
The Scottish Government are taking a range of actions to reduce the disability employment gap. For example, our Public Social Partnership is working to improve the recruitment and retention rates of disabled people by developing and testing different types of support for employers, and our Parental Employability Support Fund (PESF) is delivering pre-employment and in work support for low income disabled parents.
Data on the disability employment gap and the employment rate (16-64 years) of the Equality Act disabled population has been published in Table 3.1a of the Scottish Government’s monthly labour market briefing Labour market monthly briefing: March 2022
- gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .
- by at least half, by 2038. We set out this ambition as part of our wider disability employment strategy, “ A Fairer Scotland for Disabled People: Employment Action Plan ”. To halve the disability employment gap by 2038 will require around a 1 percentage point reduction in the gap every year.
Table 1 shows the disability employment gap for January 2016 – December 2016 to January 2021 – December 2021, sourced from the Annual Population Survey.
In 2016, our baseline year, the disability employment gap was estimated to be 37.4 percentage points. It is estimated to have reduced by 6.3 percentage points over the five years between 2016 and 2021, to 31.0 percentage points in 2021 – which is, on average, more than a 1 percentage point reduction each year. Based on performance and the labour market context to date, this suggests that we are on track to achieve our ambition to halve the gap by 2038. The reduction in the disability employment gap over this period was due to a larger rise in the employment rate of disabled people relative to the increase in the employment rate of non-disabled people.
Table 1: Disability Employment Gap, 2016 – 2021, Scotland
Disability Employment Gap (percentage points)
2016
37.4
2017
35.9
2018
35.5
2019
32.6
2020
33.4
2021
31.0
Source: Annual Population Survey, Jan-Dec datasets, ONS
The Scottish Government are taking a range of actions to reduce the disability employment gap. For example, our Public Social Partnership is working to improve the recruitment and retention rates of disabled people by developing and testing different types of support for employers, and our Parental Employability Support Fund (PESF) is delivering pre-employment and in work support for low income disabled parents.
Data on the disability employment gap and the employment rate (16-64 years) of the Equality Act disabled population has been published in Table 3.1a of the Scottish Government’s monthly labour market briefing Labour market monthly briefing: March 2022
- gov.scot (www.gov.scot) .
In the Official Report
No contribution in the Official Report cites S6W-07707 by reference.