theodi/ndl-core-corpus huggingface dataset:
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Mr Mark Francois:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that the Challenger 3 remains competitive against (a) Russia’s T-14 Armata and (b) other emerging threats; and whether he plans to upgrade the (i) firepower and (ii) protection systems of the Challenger 3 beyond existing specifications by 2030. \p Maria Eagle: The Challenger 3 Main Battle Tank will deliver a significant improvement in capability over its predecessor, the Challenger 2. Enhancements include a digitalised turret fitted with the latest 120mm smoothbore gun paired with the most lethal ammunition available; world-class UK-designed armour and an Active Protection System; and improved automotive performance. New advanced sighting systems, sensors and processing capabilities will improve situational awareness and interoperability with other units. We are confident that Challenger 3 will continue to match potential threats throughout its lifecycle, but we will continually review the performance of its specification to ensure that it remains world-leading.
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Mr Mark Francois:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent progress has been made on the development of the Enhanced Kinetic Energy round for the Challenger 3; and what steps his Department is taking to ensure its lethality matches that of the depleted uranium rounds used with the Challenger 2. \p Maria Eagle: The qualification of selected Enhanced Kinetic Energy ammunition has already started under a bilateral UK-Germany programme. This ammunition will deliver a significant enhancement to the lethality provided by the current ammunition of Challenger 2.
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Mr Mark Francois:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to help mitigate potential delays in the Challenger 3 programme achieving Initial Operating Capability by 2027. \p Maria Eagle: The Armour Main Battle Tank programme has been impacted by some delays within the supply chain. Additional resources have been directed towards resolving these issues and the next phase of trials will start in Quarter 2 2025. Progress will be monitored carefully and any impact on the delivery of Initial Operating Capability will be continually assessed.
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Mr Mark Francois:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent estimate he has made of the total cost of the Challenger 3 programme which include budget increases due to (a) technical challenges or (b) inflation; and how this aligns with the original £800 million contract awarded to Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land in 2021. \p Maria Eagle: There have not been any increases to the total budget for the Armour Main Battle Tank programme due to technical challenges or inflation. The Approved Budgetary Level for the programme remains £1.9 billion and includes the Rheinmetall BAE Systems Land contract.
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Mike Wood:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 12 February 2025 to Question 28652 on Ministers: Aviation, whether the details of the Air Passenger Duty paid for Ministerial travel on RAF flights are held by a public body. \p Maria Eagle: The information is held by the Ministry of Defence.

I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 28 February 2025 to Question 31166 to the hon. Member for North West Norfolk (James Wild).

Ministers: Aviation (docx, 15.6KB)
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Alex Burghart:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his Department’s press release entitled Historic £1.6bn deal provides thousands of air defence missiles for Ukraine and boosts UK jobs and growth, published 2 March 2025, whether contractual contingency measures exist within the contract in the event of (a) production delays, (b) cost overruns and (c) failure to meet performance criteria. \p Maria Eagle: The contract includes provisions to incentivise the specified delivery dates and, where relevant, performance criteria, with remedies available if those contractual obligations are not met. The scope will be placed in a phased manner, with the intent being that each phase is subject to a firm price.
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Mrs Sharon Hodgson:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to ensure investment in social rent homes at the spending review. \p Matthew Pennycook: At Spring statement, the government announced an immediate injection of £2 billion to support delivery of the biggest boost in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation and contribute to our ambitious Plan for Change milestone of building 1.5 million safe and decent homes in this Parliament. Further detail can be found in the Written Ministerial Statement made on 25 March 2025 (HCWS549).

The investment made at Spring statement follows the £800 million in new in-year funding which has been made available for the 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme and that will support the delivery of up to 7,800 new homes, with more than half of them being Social Rent homes.

We will set out set details of new investment to succeed the 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme at the Spending Review. This new investment will deliver a mix of homes for sub-market rent and homeownership, with a particular focus on delivering homes for social rent.
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Ben Lake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Chancellor of the Exchequer's Spring Statement of 26 March 2025, Official Report, column 945, how many and what proportion of the 1.3 million homes to be built in the UK this parliament will be built in (a) England, (b) Wales, (c) Scotland and (d) Northern Ireland. \p Matthew Pennycook: The 1.3 million homes figure referenced represents a forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) based solely on the impact of the changes the government made to the National Planning Policy Framework on 12 December 2024. The OBR does not provide a breakdown between England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.
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James McMurdock:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what support she is providing to local authorities to encourage the development of specialist retirement housing. \p Matthew Pennycook: The government is committed to helping older people to live independently at home for as long as possible.

The National Planning Policy Framework makes clear that local planning authorities should assess the size, types and tenure of housing needed for different groups, including older people, and to reflect this in their planning policies. My Department has set out guidance for councils in preparing planning policies on housing for older and disabled people. This can be found on gov.uk here.

The Affordable Homes Programme for 2021-26 includes delivery of specialist housing for older people. Councils which are registered providers can also bid into the programme, alongside private registered providers.

At Spring statement, the government announced an immediate injection of £2 billion to support delivery of the biggest boost in social and affordable housebuilding in a generation and contribute to our ambitious Plan for Change milestone of building 1.5 million safe and decent homes in this Parliament. Further detail can be found in the Written Ministerial Statement made on 25 March 2025 (HCWS549).

The investment made at Spring statement follows the £800 million in new in-year funding which has been made available for the 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme and that will support the delivery of up to 7,800 new homes, with more than half of them being Social Rent homes.

We will set out set details of new investment to succeed the 2021-26 Affordable Homes Programme at the Spending Review. This new investment will deliver a mix of homes for sub-market rent and homeownership, with a particular focus on delivering homes for social rent.

The government is giving careful consideration to the recommendations in the final report of the Older People’s Housing Taskforce and are committed to enhancing provision and choice for older people in the housing market. We will continue to consider this issue as we develop our long-term housing strategy.
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Gareth Snell:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to help young people move on from supported housing. \p Rushanara Ali: Supported housing can play an important role for young people transitioning into independent living, particularly where they have no or limited family support, including those leaving care. It can help them to build emotional wellbeing, skills and confidence and to develop their independence ready for move on.

The Single Homelessness Accommodation Programme supports young people who are rough sleeping or at risk of homelessness into longer term supported accommodation. Once in their new home, support is provided by specialist staff to access the help they need, such as support for mental health and substance abuse problems, and support to help them into independent living as appropriate.

The Rough Sleeping Prevention and Recovery Grant, a consolidated rough sleeping fund aimed at tackling rough sleeping, is providing a total of £185.6 million to local authorities across England in 2025-26. Local and combined authorities have the flexibility to use the funding to provide rough sleeping services driven by local need, including to support move on.
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2025 to Question 35254 on MHCLG: Wolverhampton, for what reason the Deputy Prime Minister does not regularly work from those offices. \p Alex Norris: The Deputy Prime Minister and ministerial team work from a number of locations and offices across the country.

Since coming into office, the Deputy Prime Minister has led an ambitious legislative agenda in Parliament to boost renters' rights, fix the planning system to support growth, and make work pay, alongside engagements across the UK on the Government's plan for change. Where the pressures of these commitments allow, the Deputy Prime Minister will visit and work from locations across the UK.
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Llinos Medi:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will take steps to develop a rural economic strategy that provides regional funding for rural communities. \p Alex Norris: The UK Government is committed to supporting economic growth across the UK, including in our rural communities. Through the Plan for Change programme, we are working closely with the Welsh Government to ensure Wales can benefit from future investment and support. Our focus will be on working closely with the Welsh Government to inform their strategies and plans for rural communities in Wales. The UK Government is supporting through programmes like the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), Freeports and Investment Zones, which collectively aim to target growth and investment across Wales.
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make it her policy to re-introduce the Economic Activity of Public Bodies (Overseas Matters) Bill. \p Alex Norris: The government will not be reintroducing the Bill.
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Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what the median age is of computers issued to officials in their Department. \p Alex Norris: The median age of devices in use at MHCLG is 2.5 years old (deployed in 2023).
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 21 February 2025 to Question 25703 on MHCLG: consultants, what the monetary value is of the target to reduce spending by 50%. \p Alex Norris: This information will be published in due course as part of MHCLG’s annual report and accounts for financial year 2024-25.
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what guidance her Department provides to local authorities on what types of decision are required to be made by (a) the council’s executive and (b) the full council. \p Jim McMahon: The Local Authorities (Functions and Responsibilities) (England) Regulations 2000, as amended, set out what types of decisions are to be taken by a council’s executive, and which are to be taken by the full council.

Guidance was issued in 2000 and 2001 to assist the initial implementation of executive arrangements in local authorities; we do not consider guidance is currently required to assist authorities in their operation under the Regulations.
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 19 March 2025 to Question 37213 on Local Government: Disclosure of Information, what powers she has to intervene if councils do not meet obligations under the Transparency Code. \p Jim McMahon: The Local Government Transparency Code does not contain specific powers to intervene in the event of non-compliance with its requirements by authorities. It is the role of the courts to enforce the law and not ministers or government departments.
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 19 March 2025 to Question 37213 on Local Government: Disclosure of Information, whether her Department has considered updating the guidance entitled Local government transparency code 2015, last updated on 29 January 2015, to enable local government data to be made available through open API or XML formats. \p Jim McMahon: We are keeping the Code under review in the context of work to ensure local government is fit, legal and decent. Local authorities are expected to provide data in an open and reusable format – the Code states “Public data should be published in a format and under a licence that allows open reuse, including for commercial and research activities, in order to maximise value to the public”.
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 21 March 2025 to Question 33755 on Members: Prison Sentences, whether her Department plans to change the disqualification rules for councillors in local government. \p Jim McMahon: Local government members already face disqualification if they receive a custodial sentence. When a person is convicted of any offence and receives a custodial sentence, whether suspended or not, of three months or more, they are disqualified from either standing for or holding office as a local authority member for a period of five years.

We consulted on necessary reforms to the local government standards regime, including proposals to reform disqualification criteria. The consultation closed on 26 February 2025, and we will respond in due course.
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to her Department's correspondence entitled Local government reorganisation: invitation to local authorities in two-tier areas, published on 6 February 2025, if she will place in the House of Commons Library a copy of each individual council response to her Department's interim plan invitation letters. \p Jim McMahon: The Government has no plans to place interim plans received from councils in the House of Commons Library. Interim plans are not a decision-making point but are designed to enable areas to set out their progress on developing proposals in line with the criteria and guidance, and receive feedback to support them to develop final proposals. A number of councils have published their interim plans on their websites, which is a matter for local decision.
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to re-introduce pensions for councillors. \p Jim McMahon: MHCLG keeps access to the Local Government Pension Scheme under regular review.
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the guidance entitled Plan for Neighbourhoods: prospectus, published on 12 March 2025, if she will publish the evaluation reports on the New Deal for Communities. \p Alex Norris: The Plan for Neighbourhoods prospectus was published on 4 March, and the Plan for Neighbourhoods: governance and boundary guidance was published on 12 March.

The prospectus drew from the publicly available evaluation and analysis of the New Deal for Communities and where analysis is referenced or cited, there is a link to the source material in the prospectus.
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Wendy Morton:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 19 March 2025 to Question 37169 on Neighbourhood Boards, what steps her Department plans to take to allow (a) public scrutiny and (b) questions from communities. \p Alex Norris: Undertaking meaningful engagement with the local community is a central pillar of the Plan for Neighbourhoods. Building trust and empowering the local community requires consistency, dedication and time, and evidence that people’s priorities have been acted upon. Together the Neighbourhood Board and local authority should ensure that residents, businesses, and grassroots organisations are actively involved in programme design and decision-making to ensure delivery reflects the priorities of local people and helps build capacity within the community.

In line with the principles of public life and to ensure the local community can hold the board to account, the board’s operations must be transparent. The board should publish membership and governance arrangements (including minutes of meetings and decision logs) on the lead council’s website. Boards should establish their own practices in line with the Nolan Principles and Managing Public Money principles.
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Sarah Bool:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department takes to monitor the response times of complaints made against registered architects to the Architects Registration Board. \p Alex Norris: The Architects Registration Board (ARB) is an independent regulator. As the sponsoring department, MHCLG regularly engages with the ARB to stay abreast of its activities. This includes consideration of performance figures, which the ARB publishes quarterly, and any potential risks regarding compliance with its statutory responsibilities. However, MHCLG has no role in the oversight of individual cases or ARB’s operational decisions, to maintain ARB’s regulatory independence.
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Sarah Bool:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department plans to take steps to monitor the adequacy of the professional indemnity insurance required for architects; and what steps her Department is taking to help support consumers with consumer recourse. \p Alex Norris: It is important for all architects to maintain appropriate financial protection against liability so that clients and building users have a route to redress in the event of a negligence claim. The independent regulator, the Architects Registration Board (ARB), has set expectations for architects to hold adequate insurance arrangements. MHCLG is supportive of the ARB’s work on this topic and has no plans to implement a monitoring regime for architects’ professional indemnity insurance at the moment.
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Jenny Riddell-Carpenter:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to review provisions within the Building Safety Act 2022 on removing the leasehold protection provisions for shared ownership leaseholders who staircase to 100% ownership and lose the statutory protections provided in their original lease. \p Alex Norris: The Building Safety Act ensures that those who built defective buildings take responsibility for remedying them, that the industry contributes to fixing the problem, and that leaseholders are protected in law from crippling bills for historical safety defects. These leaseholder protections came into force on 28 June 2022, with new financial protections for leaseholders in relevant buildings with relevant historical safety defects.

Schedule 8, paragraph 6(5) of the Building Safety Act provides that any contributions required towards remediation costs are capped according to the share of the lease the leaseholder owned at the time the lease became qualified for the protections. This position does not change should a shared owner later increase their share by staircasing, including up to 100%. Further information on this can be found in the explanatory notes on the legislation, starting with note 1731: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2022/30/notes/division/18/index.htm.
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Jenny Riddell-Carpenter:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make an estimate of the potential impact of the average time taken to receive building control decisions on applications to carry out works on higher risk buildings on the costs of those works. \p Alex Norris: Our priority with the new regime is to ensure buildings are safe and decent. The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) has 12 weeks to determine a building control approval application for new higher-risk buildings and 8 weeks to determine the applications for building work to existing higher-risk buildings. This is longer than had previously been the case. It is expected that dutyholders will consider and plan for any additional costs and adjust their programme of works to ensure that building work is carried out in a cost effective and efficient manner.

However, we recognise there are delays in processing building control approval applications for higher-risk building work and that these may have associated costs for developers. We are currently working to address delays within the higher-risk regime through a range of measures. The sector must also play its part in ensuring building control applications are of a good quality, extensive guidance is available on gov.uk.

As the higher-risk regime was introduced in October 2023, it is too soon to provide an impact assessment for the time it takes to get building control approval from the BSR. Under the Building Safety Act, the Secretary of State must appoint an independent person to review the effectiveness of the BSR and the higher-risk regime by 28 April 2027, which may include the cost impacts of the higher-risk regime on developers.
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Jenny Riddell-Carpenter:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether her Department plans to review it's guidance on competent person schemes: conditions of authorisation. \p Alex Norris: The Building Safety Regulator is responsible for oversight of the competent person schemes and has committed in its  Strategic Plan 2023-2026 to carry out a review of the conditions of authorisation, which must be met by all competent person schemes to ensure they are fit for purpose.

In addition, the department is always looking to improve public and building safety and intends to review the operation of competent person schemes to identify whether improvements can be made, working with the Building Safety Regulator. This will include reviewing the types of work that can be carried out under the competent person schemes. We will consider whether and how this review might touch on third party certification schemes.
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John Whitby:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, whether she plans to regulate private parking companies. \p Alex Norris: The Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019 places a duty on the Government to prepare a code of practice containing guidance about the operation and management of private parking facilities.

This government is determined to drive up standards in the private parking sector and will announce its plans for the new Code in due course.
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Tom Morrison:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps she is taking to support British Muslim communities. \p Alex Norris: The Government recognises the importance of supporting faith and belief groups.

The Secretary of State and the Minister for Faith, Communities and Resettlement work closely together to demonstrate support for Muslim communities nationwide, connecting with women, young people, and community leaders through extensive outreach efforts. This has included engagement with numerous Muslim leaders in the aftermath of the Southport incident and subsequent riots and attending numerous Iftars during Ramadan to emphasise the important contributions that Muslim communities make to our society.

The Secretary of State is also committed to tackling all forms of hate crime. She has recently committed to the new working group on an anti-Muslim hatred/Islamophobia definition which will advise government on how to best understand, quantify and define prejudice, discrimination, and hate crime targeted against Muslims.
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, pursuant to the Answer of 19 March 2025 to Question 37220 on Admiralty House, how many civil servants provided support to the Deputy Prime Minister for the move. \p Alex Norris: As this support was provided in relation to the move to an official residence it is not possible to identify a specific number of staff.

Professional removal and cleaning services were hired and paid for personally by the Deputy Prime Minister and at no cost to the Department.
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Jenny Riddell-Carpenter:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will publish the full tranching model from the Building Safety Regulator setting out the approach to be taken for calling in applications for building assessment certificates for existing higher-risk buildings. \p Alex Norris: The Building Safety Regulator (BSR) advised the Department on 26 March 2025 that:

(a) 1454 directions have been issued

(b) 1368 BAC applications have been submitted

(c) 12 Building Assessment Certificates have been issued

(d) 1 application has been refused

The BSR have also set out that in year 1, the first tranche of buildings have been directed based on meeting at least one of the following criteria:

Plans for future tranches are still being determined.
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Jenny Riddell-Carpenter:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what estimate her Department has made of the potential impact of the time spent by the Building Safety Regulator to (a) determine and (b) issue a decision on an application for a building assessment certificate on costs for accountable persons. \p Alex Norris: The Building Safety Act 2022 (“the Act”) requires the Principal Accountable Person to apply for a Building Assessment Certificate when directed to do so by the Building Safety Regulator (BSR). Under the Act, accountable persons may pass on costs they incur in meeting their building safety obligations to leaseholders via the service charge. The government recognises that there will be costs associated with implementing building safety requirements and considers these to be vital to ensuring fire and structural risks in higher-risk buildings are properly managed to ensure residents are and feel safe in their homes.

The assumptions for the Building Assessment Certificate process do not distinguish between "Determine" and "Issue". The Regulator operates independently of MHCLG and the BSR have advised that their initial estimates range from £7,488 to £20,736 per assessment depending on the complexity and quality of the submission. The BSR have stated that they consider it too early to assess how many buildings will fall into each category or whether they will need to update these assumptions over time.
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Stuart Andrew:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, with reference to the Written Ministerial Statement on Local Government Finance on 24 February 2025, HCWS461, whether her Department plans to take steps to prevent local authorities from disposing of community and heritage assets. \p Jim McMahon: The government is clear that public ownership of locally significant assets should be protected to ensure residents can continue to benefit from them. In February, government set out an expectation to councils in receipt of Exceptional Financial Support that, where a council is considering funding this support through asset sales, they should avoid the disposal of community heritage assets where possible. It is for a local authority to ensure they satisfy this expectation in the context of their overall financial position.
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Tristan Osborne:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps her Department is taking to (a) maintain protections for (i) habitats and (ii) species in the context of the Planning and Infrastructure Bill and (b) provide adequate habitat replacement in (i) Kent and (ii) other areas with limited land availability. \p Matthew Pennycook: When it comes to development and the environment, we know we can do better than the status quo, which too often sees both sustainable housebuilding and nature recovery stall. Instead of environmental protections being seen as barriers to growth, we want to unlock a win-win for the economy and for nature. The Planning and Infrastructure Bill will introduce a new Nature Restoration Fund that will unlock and accelerate development while going beyond neutrality to unlock the positive impact development can have in driving nature recovery.

Environmental Delivery Plans (EDPs), and the conservation measures they propose, must be evidence-based and properly scrutinised before being put in place. An EDP can only be put in place where the Secretary of State is satisfied the delivery of conservation measures will outweigh the negative effects of development.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-01)

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Darren Paffey:To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make it her policy to require full planning permission to convert commercial premises for residential use. \p Matthew Pennycook: The government recognises that there has been criticism of some of the homes delivered under permitted development rights for change of use. We continue to keep permitted development rights under review.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-01)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-04-01 conversation_288

Graeme Downie:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure work coaches are able to assist people with (a) ADHD and (b) autism in (i) Scotland and (ii) the UK. \p Alison McGovern: In January this year, the Government launched an independent academic panel to advise on boosting awareness and inclusion at work for those with neurodiversity. Many panel members are neurodivergent or have familial experience, alongside their professional expertise. The panel is exploring why neurodivergent individuals often have poor workplace experiences and a low employment rate. Building on the Buckland Review, the panel will recommend employer actions to support neurodivergent inclusion, including in recruitment and daily workplace practices.

This government is committed to improving the outcomes for neurodiverse people. All DWP Work Coaches undergo comprehensive training, equipping them with the skills to provide support tailored to each customer’s individual circumstances.

Work Coaches have access to a learning product specific to Autism. It covers:

Work coaches receive specialist advice from Disability Employment Advisers on customising their support for disabled customers, who also offer direct support to customers where additional bespoke assistance is beneficial. Work coaches can also use Additional Work Coach Support to provide personalised assistance to disabled people, helping them move toward and into employment and to access employment and wider services.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-01)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-04-01 conversation_289

Adam Jogee:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Gingerbread report entitled Fix the CMS, published on 25 November 2024, what assessment her Department has made of the potential merits of enabling Child Maintenance Service users to correspond with caseworkers via the digital platform. \p Andrew Western: The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) is committed to delivering the best possible digital service for our customers.

The CMS Service Modernisation Programme has delivered improvements to the customer experience, enabling parents to access their case on-line through My Child Maintenance Case and ensuring parents can report changes of circumstances and access their digital communications at any time of the day.

CMS are currently discussing with stakeholders how we can further improve our digital messaging function for customers as well as updates to our current SMS and email notifications. The aim of further digital Improvements is to further increase flexibility for customers to correspond, gather customer information at an accelerated rate, and reduce inbound and outbound telephony demand allowing caseworkers more time to support vulnerable customers and those who cannot use digital channels.

We will continue to engage with stakeholders as we consider CMS reforms and recommendations from the Gingerbread report ‘Fix the CMS’.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-01)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-04-01 conversation_290

Iqbal Mohamed:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she plans to publish algorithmic transparency records for (a) the Universal Credit Advances model and (b) other decision making algorithms used by her Department on the Algorithmic Transparency Reporting Standard Hub. \p Andrew Western: We are working with colleagues in The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) to finalise the publication of algorithmic transparency records for existing tools as well as tools being considered for future deployment in the DWP.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-01)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-04-01 conversation_291

Lee Anderson:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total cost was of providing translation services in her Department in the last year. \p Andrew Western: In the last 12 months the total money spent on interpretation services was £8,496,578.37.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-01)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-04-01 conversation_292

Manuela Perteghella:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she plans to provide additional support for young people with lifelong conditions following reforms to the Universal Credit health top-up. \p Alison McGovern: The Pathways to Work Green Paper is an important staging post on a journey of reform. It sets out our vision, strategy and proposals for change. Before any decisions are made, we are consulting on the design options for a work, health and skills support package. We are specifically seeking input on the proposal to raise the age of eligibility for the health element of the Universal Credit (UC) award to 22. The government will actively engage with a diverse range of stakeholders, including young people with health conditions and disabilities. This consultation is now open and will close on 30th June.

As we set out at point 256 in the Pathways to Work Green Paper: “Delaying access to the UC health element would remove any potential disincentive to work during this time. Proceeding with this change would be on the basis that resources could be better spent on improving the quality and range of opportunities available to young people through the [Youth] guarantee, so they can sign up to work or training rather than long-term benefits.” Such a change could support the establishment of a distinct and active transition phase for young people, based on learning or earning for all.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-01)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-04-01 conversation_293

Steve Witherden:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to her Department's Pathways to Work Green Paper, published on 18 March 2025, what estimate her Department has made of the number of disabled people who will lose access to PIP following changes to the daily living assessment criteria. \p Sir Stephen Timms: Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, with some information published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’. The publication ‘Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms – Impacts’ may be of interest. In particular, Table A4 on page 9.

A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-01)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-04-01 conversation_294

Richard Burgon:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total value is of grants provided by her Department under the Access to Work scheme in each financial year since 2020-21; and how much her Department plans to provide in the (a) 2025-26 and (b) 2026-27 financial years. \p Sir Stephen Timms: The most recently available data on Access to Work (AtW) outturn expenditure is available in the Access to Work official statistics. Expenditure on Access to Work elements, for financial years 2020/21 to 2023/24 was:

Financial year

2020/21

2021/22

2022/23

2023/24

Nominal Terms

£106,624,000

£147,717,000

£179,679,000

£255,171,000

Real Terms (2023/24 prices)

£120,536,000

£167,867,000

£190,777,000

£255,171,000

This includes expenditure on all AtW elements, including the Mental Health Support Service (MHSS), but excludes expenditure on the Transitional Employer Support Grant (TESG). Further information on AtW expenditure, including breakdowns of expenditure by AtW element type, is published in the Access to Work official statistics and currently covers financial years 2007/08 through to 2023/24.

The most recently available data on AtW grant expenditure forecast under the current policy is published here for 2025/26 and 2026/27: Access to Work grant expenditure forecasts - GOV.UK. These figures do not align with figures from the AtW official statistics as they exclude grant expenditure on MHSS and include expenditure on TESG.

The department has budgeted £385m for grants in 2025/26 based on the current expenditure forecast. The budget for 2026/27 has not been set.

The budget is subject to significant change due to the uncertainty in the forecast and based on affordability and departmental funding pressures
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-01)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-04-01 conversation_295

Kim Johnson:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact the new salary thresholds for Skilled Worker visas on staffing levels in her Department. \p Andrew Western: Whilst the impact of changes to the Skilled Worker Salary threshold are affecting a very small proportion of staff within the Department, visa expiry and potential options for obtaining a future work visa are specific to individuals’ circumstances and the Home Office legislation which applies at the time that their current visa expires.

As current employees’ visa expiry dates span several years and not all will be impacted by the changes to the skilled worker salary thresholds, the department does not expect changes to the Skilled Worker salary threshold to negatively impact on service or resource levels.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-01)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-04-01 conversation_296

Lee Anderson:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what diversity, equality and inclusion targets her Department has for staff recruitment. \p Andrew Western: The Department for Work and Pensions does not have specific targets for diversity, equality and inclusion in recruitment. Instead, the department looks to establish methods of recruitment that give all applicants a fair opportunity to succeed, based on merit. The department looks to build an organisation that is representative of the community that it serves that also fulfils all principles set by the Civil Service Commission.

The exception to this is a DWP ambition to fill 5% of AO/EO vacancies through Going Forward into Employment (GFiE) Life Chance Employment Schemes. This ambition of 5% is held across the whole Civil Service, in a scheme led by Cabinet Office, but is not a fixed target that must be met.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-04-01)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-04-01 conversation_298

Blake Stephenson:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 18 February 2025 to Question 30412 on Sick Leave: Productivity, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of workplace sickness on productivity. \p Alison McGovern: The Department published an estimate of the overall cost to the economy due to sickness absence in The cost of working age ill-health and disability that prevents work on 18 March 2025. The analyses do not estimate the specific impact of workplace sickness on productivity at work, but do consider the overall economic output lost as a result of sickness absence. This found that lost output due to sickness absence cost the economy between £38 billion to £56 billion in 2022. The Department currently has no plans to specifically assess the potential impact of levels of workplace sickness on productivity.