Could disabled people get more jobs working in NHS Scotland if Jeremy Hunt was in charge ?

In a week where the political shambles of another botched budget saw yet another attack on support for disabled people shelved, data is published which shows that equality of employment opportunity for disabled people in the NHS in Britain is poor and with disabled people in Scotland facing deeper levels of discrimination than elsewhere in Britain.

Government data indicates that around 16% of the working age population in Britain is disabled.  The same data source indicates that 46.3% of disabled people of working age are in work, compared to 76.4% of non-disabled people.This data confirms that structural and institutional discrimination remains a major obstacle in employment equality for disabled people.

The NHS across Britain has been undertaking distinct and focused work for some years now to eliminate that discrimination.  In Scotland, running the NHS is a devolved function, and the current government has been running the NHS - and the work on eliminating discrimination - since 2007.

In NHS England, the proportion of the workforce identifying as disabled is 2.58%.

In NHS Wales, 1.07% of the workforce identifies as disabled.

In NHS Scotland, where complete responsibility for performance in all areas, including making equality happen, rests entirely with Scotland's government, the proportion of the NHS workforce identifying as disabled is 0.94%

A dismal performance and a poor advert for independence.

Using these figures, one could argue that if NHS Scotland was being run by the same people who run NHS England, the number of disabled people employed in NHS Scotland would increase from just 1,550 to 4,227.

Disabled people in Britain are not just being failed by Cameron, Osborne and Hunt, they are also being failed by Sturgeon, Swinney and Robison.