theodi/ndl-core-corpus huggingface dataset:
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Bradley Thomas:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will take steps to change the historic vehicle tax exemption threshold to 30 years. \p James Murray: At Budget 2014 the previous Government announced that it would introduce a rolling 40-year VED exemption for classic cars. This means that currently vehicles constructed before 1 January 1984 are exempt from paying VED.

The law does not specifically define a vehicle as historic or classic for registration purposes, and it is widely recognised that there are many factors other than age which influence whether a car is considered as classic. The previous Government therefore set 40 years as being a fair cut-off date to distinguish classic cars from older cars.

While there are no plans to reduce the tax exemption age for classic cars from 40 years, the Government keeps all taxes under review, and welcomes representations from the public about how the tax system could be improved.
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Bradley Thomas:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of changes made to the level of employer National Insurance contributions at the Autumn Budget 2024 on hospitality businesses in Bromsgrove. \p James Murray: A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the introduction of the Bill containing the changes to employer NICs. The TIIN sets out the impact of the policy on the exchequer, the economic impacts of the policy; and the impacts on individuals, businesses, and civil society organisations as well as an overview of the equality impacts.

Estimates of the impact on businesses in Bromsgrove from changes to Employer NICs announced at Autumn Budget 2024 are not available.
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Dr Caroline Johnson:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how many and what proportion of items of correspondence from Parliamentarians received by (a) her Department, (b) her and (c) her Ministers in each month since August 2024 have not yet received a substantive response. \p James Murray: In line with Cabinet Office guidance, HM Treasury aims to respond to ministerial correspondence from parliamentarians within 20 working days. Correspondence performance data is published within HM Treasury’s Annual Report and Accounts. The 2023-24 Report noted that 62% of replies to parliamentarians were answered within the timeframe.
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Dr Simon Opher:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether land farmed under the Environmental Land Management Scheme will be exempt from new inheritance tax rules for farms. \p James Murray: The environmental value of land farmed or managed under the Environmental Land Management Scheme (ELMS) will be eligible for Agricultural Property Relief (APR) of up to 100% from 6th April 2025. From 6th April 2026, the 100% rate of relief will continue for the first £1 million of combined agricultural and business property, and it will be 50% thereafter. This will include land in ELMS.
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Dr Simon Opher:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether woodlands qualify for inheritance tax relief. \p James Murray: Woodlands can qualify for relief from inheritance tax. That relief may be Agricultural Property Relief (APR) if the woodlands were occupied and used with agricultural land, such as a shelter belt. Alternatively, Business Property Relief (BPR) may be available where the woodlands were actively used for commercial purposes, subject to certain conditions. Furthermore, Woodlands Relief may apply where the woodlands don’t qualify for APR and BPR. This relief defers the charge to inheritance tax on the value of trees (not the value of the land) transferred on death to the point at which the trees are disposed of.
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Dave Doogan:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what is the average wait time for callers to HMRC helplines; what action is being taken to reduce wait times on HMRC helplines; and if she will make it her policy implement a freephone service when wait times are high. \p James Murray: Information regarding the average speed of answer is published as part of HMRC’s monthly performance report:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmrc-monthly-performance-reports

HMRC know that their service levels have, until recently, been below published standards. They aim to answer calls as quickly as possible but wait times may be longer than usual during busy periods.

HMRC received extra funding last year to recruit more customer service advisers to help improve telephony performance. They met their helpline service standard in Quarter 3.

HMRC do not have plans to introduce a freephone service.

HMRC helplines use 03 numbers (0300 or 0345), which cost the same as landline 01 or 02 numbers, but actual call charges depend on the customer's phone provider. For mobile networks, 03 numbers are typically included in airtime plans, but customers should verify with their specific network provider.

HMRC is a public body and does not profit from customer contacts.
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Harriet Cross:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of (a) changes to (i) Agricultural Property Relief and (ii) Business Property Relief and (b) interest rates on (A) family farm succession planning and (B) food security. \p James Murray: The Chancellor wrote to the Chair of the Treasury Select Committee about the reforms to agricultural and business property reliefs announced at the 2024 Autumn Budget: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/45691/documents/226235/default/.

The UK Government’s analysis is based on the number of estates expected to pay more inheritance tax rather than the number of farms or businesses affected. This is because inheritance tax is a wealth transfer tax on the estate (the property, money, and possessions) of someone who has died.

The number of claims for these reliefs, meaning how many estates would be impacted by this change, is affected by many things such as: who owns the business; the nature of that ownership; how many owners there are; the level of debt; and how they plan their affairs. The UK Government remains firmly of the view that claims data is the correct way to understand an inheritance tax liability.

The reforms are expected to result in up to around 520 estates claiming agricultural property relief, including those that also claim business property relief, paying more inheritance tax in 2026-27. Almost three-quarters of estates claiming agricultural property relief, including those that also claim for business property relief, would not pay more tax in 2026-27.

Around 1,500 estates claiming only business property relief are expected to be affected in 2026-27, with around 1,000 of these holding shares designated as “not listed” on the markets of recognised stock exchanges, such as the Alternative Investment Market. The remaining 500 estates will include business assets from sectors across the economy that are eligible for business property relief.

These reforms mean that around three-quarters of estates claiming business property relief in 2026-27 (excluding those only relating to holding shares designated as “not listed” on the markets of recognised stock exchanges) will not pay more inheritance tax in 2026-27.

The costing for this tax change was certified as ‘reasonable and central’ by the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) at Autumn Budget 2024. The OBR has published more detail about the assumptions underpinning the costing here: https://obr.uk/download/october-2024-economic-and-fiscal-outlook-costing-of-changes-to-agricultural-and-business-property-relief/?tmstv=xx-xxxx-xxxx.

In accordance with standard practice, a tax information and impact note will be published alongside the draft legislation before the relevant Finance Bill.
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James Cartlidge:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 8 November to Question 11947 on Armed Forces: Private Education, whether the decision to not offer any exemptions from the VAT policy for service families included an assessment of the exemption of US personnel whose children attend British independent schools. \p James Murray: The Government greatly values the contribution of our serving military personnel. The Ministry of Defence has increased the funding allocated to the Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA) to account for the impact of any private school fee increases on the proportion of fees covered by the CEA in line with how the allowance normally operates. The changes mean that UK military families with a child at a mainstream boarding school can now claim over £30,000 per year.

US personnel do not receive funding from the UK Government for their school places. They can only claim back the VAT element of fees, under a scheme that entitles UK military personnel to reciprocal reliefs when visiting other NATO countries. The NATO Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) means that visiting NATO personnel have access to Visiting Forces Relief (VFR), for example the VAT free purchase scheme which provides relief on goods and services to US personnel in the UK.
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Sir Julian Lewis:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she made an assessment of the potential merits of including within the terms of reference for the Independent Review of the Loan Charge consideration of the (a) mis-selling by scheme promoters, (b) advice on legality given by accountants, (c) impact of retrospective pursuit on mental health and welfare and (d) measures for protection against recurrence in future; and if she will take steps to revise the terms of reference to include those matters. \p James Murray: On 23 January, the Government launched the Independent Review of the Loan Charge, honouring a commitment made at the Budget.

The objectives of the review are to help bring the matter to a close for those affected; ensure fairness for all taxpayers; and ensure that appropriate support is in place for those subject to the Loan Charge. The terms of reference for the review have been published here: www.gov.uk/government/publications/independent-review-of-the-loan-charge.

As I set out in my letter to the reviewer, we want the review to bring the Loan Charge to a close for those people who still owe substantial amounts of money but can see no way to resolve their debts. It is now for the reviewer to conduct his review and make recommendations to the Government.

The Government is also taking action to prevent disguised remuneration in the future. At the Budget, the Government announced the most ambitious ever package to close the tax gap, raising £6.5 billion of additional tax revenue in 2029-30. The package includes measures to tackle promoters of tax avoidance schemes and to address non-compliance in umbrella companies, where most disguised remuneration now takes place.
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Alex Mayer:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to ensure people who could not pay their Self Assessment Tax because of the Barclays outage do not have to pay a fixed penalty. \p James Murray: No Barclays customers who filed their tax return and paid their Self Assessment tax liability by 3rd February will face a penalty.
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Andrew Rosindell:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether she has plans to amend the rates of Air Passenger Duty. \p James Murray: At Autumn Budget 2024, the Government announced APD rates for 2026-27, including a partial adjustment to help compensate for two recent years of inflation that was higher than expected.

As with all taxes, the Chancellor makes decisions on APD rates at fiscal events in the context of public finances.
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Kevin Hollinrake:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, how the proposed lower multiplier for hospitality, leisure and retail from 2026-27 will interact with small business rate relief; and what estimate she has made of the impact of the lower multiplier on the cost of small business rate relief. \p James Murray: The government is committed to retaining Small Business Rate Relief, which is a permanent relief set down in legislation.

Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) is available to businesses with a single property below a set rateable value. Eligible properties under £12,000 receive 100 per cent relief, which means over a third of businesses in England (more than 700,000) pay no business rates at all.

There is also tapered support available to properties valued between £12,000 and £15,000.

Business rates bills are calculated by applying the relevant multiplier before reliefs are applied.
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Stuart Anderson:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps she is taking to (a) protect and (b) enhance access to cash in rural areas. \p Emma Reynolds: The Government is committed to protecting access to cash for the millions of people across the UK that use it, including those in vulnerable groups.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) assumed regulatory responsibility for access to cash in September 2024. Its rules require the UK’s largest banks and building societies to assess the impact of a closure or material alteration of a relevant cash withdrawal or deposit facility and put in place a new service if necessary.

The FCA’s rules require designated firms to consider a range of factors in their assessments which will account for challenges in cash access faced in rural areas. For example, firms are required to consider the actual travel times and costs to reach cash access facilities and identify gaps in provision where these are unreasonable.

Where a resident, community organisation or other interested party feels access to cash in their community is insufficient, they can submit a request for a cash access assessment. Further information about submitting a cash access request can be found at the following link: https://www.link.co.uk/helping-you-access-cash/request-access-to-cash
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Sir Alec Shelbrooke:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an estimate of the potential impact of the misclassification of waste into the wrong landfill tax band by the operators of licensed sites on the level of unpaid landfill tax. \p James Murray: HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) estimates the size of the tax gap, which is the difference between the amount of tax that should, in theory, be paid to HMRC, and what is actually paid. These statistics are published annually and are available at: Measuring tax gaps 2024 edition: tax gap estimates for 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The latest estimate for England and Northern Ireland of the Landfill Tax gap is 14.5% of the theoretical Landfill Tax liabilities, or £100 million, in the 2022 to 2023 tax year.

The illustrative estimates of the monetary components of the 2022-23 Landfill Tax gap are £75 million at unauthorised sites and £90 million of misclassified plus £35 million underdeclared waste at authorised sites less £100 million compliance yield (tax gap estimates are calculated net of compliance yield).
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Adam Jogee:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions her Department has had with Barclays Bank on technical issues impacting (a) payments and (b) transactions for customers in (i) Newcastle-under-Lyme and (ii) Staffordshire since 31 January 2025. \p Emma Reynolds: The Government was sorry to hear of the issues impacting Barclays customers over the weekend including those in my Hon. Friend’s constituency but understands that Barclays’ services are restored, and the firm has committed to ensure customers are not left out of pocket as a result of the issues.

Engagement with specific firms is a matter for the sector’s regulators, including the Bank of England, Prudential Regulation Authority and Financial Conduct Authority, who will continue to monitor the firm and the impact of the issues.
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Blake Stephenson:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps her Department took to help tackle (a) illicit finance and (b) economic crime between 4 July 2024 and 14 January 2025. \p Emma Reynolds: The Government is committed to tackling illicit finance and economic crime. We have appointed an Anti-Corruption Champion Baroness Hodge to support the government's agenda in tackling corruption at home and overseas.

HM Treasury has been working with partners across the public and private sector to update our National Risk Assessment for money laundering and terrorist financing; and to deliver Economic Crime Plan 2, our public-private strategy to combat economic crime and strengthen the UK system. This includes work on HM Treasury owned actions to reform our Anti-Money Laundering/Counter Terrorist Financing supervisory regime, and to improve the effectiveness of the Money Laundering Regulations.

HM Treasury has also continued its work to tackle international illicit finance flows and strengthen the global system, representing the UK at the Financial Action Task Force; and conducting regular engagement with governments around the world on how to improve their anti-money laundering systems.
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Harriet Cross:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of changes in tax liabilities and reliefs on small-scale furnished holiday let operators transitioning to long-term residential letting; and what the difference in tax relief will be between (a) the current Furnished Holiday Lettings tax regime and (b) the standard residential letting arrangements from April 2025. \p James Murray: The Government will abolish the Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHL) tax regime from April 2025. The FHL tax regime has created a distortion that favours short-term holiday lets over longer-term rentals. Abolishing it will equalise the tax treatment of FHL and non-FHL landlords’ income and gains, making the tax system fairer.

Tax reliefs will still be available to individuals providing furnished holiday letting services, including mortgage interest relief at 20 per cent and relief for the replacement of domestic items. These reliefs will be at the same level as those available to landlords who provide long-term residential lets.
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Harriet Cross:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the policy paper entitled Abolition of the furnished holiday lettings tax regime, updated on 7 November 2024, on what evidential basis her Department determined that the furnished holiday let tax regime created market distortions in relation to (a) property investment patterns and (b) tax advantages. \p James Murray: The Government will abolish the Furnished Holiday Lettings (FHL) tax regime from April 2025.

The FHL tax regime has created a distortion that favours short-term holiday lets over longer-term rentals, by providing a tax incentive to invest in and provide the former over the latter.

Abolishing the regime will remove this incentive by equalising the tax treatment of FHL and non-FHL landlords’ income and gains.
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Edward Morello:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the increase in employer National Insurance contributions on transport companies who provide services for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities. \p James Murray: In order to repair the public finances and help raise the revenue required to increase funding for public services, the Government has taken the difficult decision to increase employer National Insurance contributions (NICs).

The Government published a Tax Information and Impact Note on 13 November which sets out the impact of the employer NICs changes on employers.

At Autumn Budget 2024 and the recent provisional Local Government Finance Settlement, the Government announced £2 billion of new grant funding for local government in 2025-26. This includes £515m to support councils with the increase in employer National Insurance Contributions.

The £515m of additional funding made available to compensate local government for the impact of changes to employer NICs has been determined based on a national assessment of the costs for directly employed staff across the public sector. However, this funding is unringfenced and it is for LAs to determine how to use this funding across relevant services and responsibilities.
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Nesil Caliskan:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has made an assessment of the equitability of film tax relief schemes. \p James Murray: The government is committed to supporting the creative industries, and film and TV companies benefit from a number of generous and equitable tax reliefs, ranging from a rate of 34% for the standard Audio Visual Expenditure Credit to 53% for the Independent Film Tax Credit.

The credits are available to all companies that meet the eligibility criteria, which are outlined in the BFI’s Creative Sector Expenditure Credits and Tax Relief guidance. The criteria ensure that the credits meet their objectives of incentivising investment in culturally British film and TV productions and support the domestic industry. As with all taxes, the government keeps the film and TV reliefs under review.

The government also provides significant funding for the film and TV sector and has included the creative industries in its Industrial Strategy. A £60 million package of support for the creative industries announced in January included including £7 million for the Global Screen Fund and funding to 6 Mayoral Authorities to help develop creative clusters. The British Film Institute (BFI) administers the Global Screen Fund on behalf of government and follows the BFI Diversity Standards for all BFI funding.
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Sir John Hayes:To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, for what purposes the Valuation Office Agency has used artificial intelligence in the last 12 months. \p James Murray: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the heart of the Government’s plan to kickstart an era of economic growth, transform how we deliver public services, and boost living standards for working people across the country.

The VOA is conducting initial discovery work to identify where Generative AI tools might improve productivity and quality, including through trialling Microsoft’s Copilot tools.
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Blake Stephenson:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 22 January 2025 to Question 24303 on Pensioners: Winter Fuel Payment, if she will make an estimate of the number of those pensioners who are on the basic state pension. \p Torsten Bell: At May 2024, there were 3.5m pensioners with a basic State Pension income above £218.15: the Pension Credit Standard Minimum Guarantee (SMG) threshold for single pensioners. (Source: Stat-Xplore)

However, some pensioners with a basic State Pension income below the SMG will also have incomes from other sources, such as a private pension, which takes their total income above this threshold.
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Ben Lake:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of child maintenance service cases are being dealt with by the specialist domestic abuse caseworker team. \p Andrew Western: The Child Maintenance Service takes the issue of domestic abuse extremely seriously and is committed to ensuring victims of abuse get the help and support they need to access and use the service safely and securely.

CMS caseworkers are provided with domestic abuse training to ensure they understand, recognise and respond safely and appropriately to customers who are experiencing domestic abuse, or are survivors of domestic abuse. In July 2024, the training was updated with input from external stakeholders, and covers different types of abuse, including economic, post-separation, coercive and controlling behaviour.

Specialist Case Team is one of the measures CMS have introduced to manage cases with the most challenging or complex domestic abuse concerns. This has minimised the need for parents to recount their history of domestic abuse and caseworkers to deliver support to some of the most vulnerable customers.

As of February 2025, the volume of cases in the Specialist Case Team was 301, this equates to 0.04% of CMS total customer caseload.
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Stephen Gethins:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, when she will provide an update on the (a) strategy and (b) expected publication date of the work of the Ministerial Child Poverty Task Force including on (i) child poverty and (ii) review of the two-child benefit cap. \p Alison McGovern: Delivering our manifesto commitment to tackle child poverty is an urgent priority for this Government, and the Ministerial Taskforce is working to publish a Child Poverty Strategy which will deliver lasting change.

The Strategy will look at all available levers across four key themes of increasing incomes, including considering social security reforms, reducing essential costs, increasing financial resilience; and better local support especially in the early years. This will build on the reform plans underway across Government and work underway in Devolved Governments.
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Edward Morello:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an assessment of the adequacy of the level of support provided by employers to their employees with ADHD. \p Alison McGovern: Neurodivergent people bring many positive benefits to businesses but face particular barriers to employment, which is reflected in a poor overall employment rate. As a government, we want to support all forms of neurodiversity in the workplace, including ADHD, by encouraging employers to adopt neuro-inclusive working practices so that everyone can thrive at work.

On 29th January, the Government launched an independent panel of academics with expertise and experiences of neurodiversity to advise us on boosting neurodiversity awareness and inclusion at work.

In keeping with the Government’s pledge to bring disabled voices closer to decision-making, at least half of the panel are neurodiverse themselves.

The panel will consider the reasons why neurodivergent people have poor experiences in the workplace, and a low overall employment rate. They will make recommendations in the Summer which consider likely mechanisms for change.

In parallel, we are working with other areas of government to promote awareness of neurodiversity amongst employers, and we recently announced Keep Britain Working, a major independent review of the employer’s role in reducing health-related inactivity and to promote healthy and inclusive workplaces, led by the former Chair of John Lewis, Sir Charlie Mayfield.
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Helen Whately:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she is taking steps to increase the number of Personal Independence Payments assessments that are conducted face-to-face. \p Sir Stephen Timms: Since July 2024, there has been no change in policy regarding assessing Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claims remotely.

With effect from September 2024 assessment suppliers deliver the ‘Health Assessment Advisory Service’ on behalf of the department through the Functional Assessment Services (FAS) contracts. These contracts bring together all functional health assessment services within a geographic area (Lot). Individuals now have the same supplier for their separate PIP and Work Capability Assessments (WCA).

As part of the FAS process, the feasibility of a paper-based assessment will always be considered in the first instance, for all cases. Where a paper-based review is not possible the claimant will be invited to an assessment.

Before an invitation to an assessment is sent, consideration will be given to claimants who need a specific assessment channel due to their health condition or circumstances. Other claimants who can undertake any assessment type will be allocated to the next available appointment; however, this can be changed if the claimant informs us that a reasonable adjustment is appropriate in their circumstances.

The department audits FAS suppliers to ensure that the correct channel type has been selected for the claimant. This provides assurance that claimants are routed to the most appropriate assessment type. The FAS suppliers are also increasing their capacity to deliver more face-to-face assessments, and the department expects the reported percentage of face-to-face assessments to increase towards Autumn 2025.

We remain committed to enabling a multi-channel assessment approach. Any future decisions will be evidence-based and to ensure this we will draw on existing evidence, as well as continuing to build our understanding via research and analysis.
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Terry Jermy:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to increase access to work capability assessments in South West Norfolk. \p Sir Stephen Timms: We have interpreted your question as referring to the accessibility of Work Capability Assessments (used in supporting the department in the determination of the health element of Universal Credit, Employment and Support Allowance and other specialist benefits) within the South-West Norfolk area.

We take our responsibility to ensure all individuals have access to our services, without disadvantage, very seriously. We have a range of provisions in place to ensure assessments are accessible to all individuals, in line with the standards under the Equality Act 2010. DWP meets legal accessibility requirements by ensuring individuals can access our services.

Consideration will be given to individuals who need a specific assessment channel due to their health condition or circumstances. At all stages of the claim, individuals are asked to advise us of any mobility restrictions. If the assessment supplier is made aware of mobility restrictions, they will consider booking a different assessment channel.

As part of the Functional Assessment Services process, the feasibility of a paper-based assessment will always be considered in the first instance. Where a paper-based review is not possible individuals will be invited to an assessment.
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Jim Shannon:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the adequacy of the financial compensation available to those that have been exposed to asbestos in the workplace. \p Sir Stephen Timms: The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) provides specific support for people with asbestos-related conditions via a range of schemes.

Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit (IIDB) provides non-contributory, “no-fault” benefit for disablement because of an accident at work, or because of one of over 70 prescribed diseases known to be a risk from certain jobs. IIDB is a weekly award that can be worth up to £11,500* per year and has been consistently uprated in line with inflation.

The department also provides one-off lump-sum compensation payments under the Pneumoconiosis etc. (Workers’ Compensation) Act 1979 (the ‘1979 Act scheme’) to individuals who suffer from one of the dust-related diseases covered by the scheme, subject to the wider eligibility criteria being satisfied. This scheme is designed to cover people who are unable to claim damages from any relevant employers because they have gone out of business.

Asbestos-related diseases covered by IIDB and the 1979 Act scheme include pneumoconiosis (including asbestosis), diffuse mesothelioma, unilateral or bilateral diffuse pleural thickening and asbestos-related primary carcinoma of the lung. Subject to Parliamentary approval, both IIDB and the 1979 Act scheme are due to be uprated by 1.7 per cent from April this year.

In addition to these schemes someone suffering from long-term disabling affects due to an asbestos-related condition may be eligible for further financial support via Personal Independence Payment, or through Universal Credit and New Style Employment and Support Allowance for those with a health condition that limits their ability to work.

Those who have been exposed to asbestos in the workplace may pursue a civil compensation claim against an employer. Where their employer no longer exists or their employer’s insurer cannot be traced, individuals diagnosed with diffuse mesothelioma may also be eligible for an award under the 2014 Diffuse Mesothelioma Payment Scheme if there is evidence that their exposure was due to employer negligence.

*Figure rounded to the nearest hundred.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

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Olly Glover:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent progress she has made on reducing the time taken for Access to Work applications to be processed. \p Sir Stephen Timms: We are committed to reducing wait times for Access to Work, and we have deployed additional staff to process claims and streamlined our delivery processes. We prioritise applications from customers starting a job in four weeks, and renewals.

Access to Work continues to be in high demand and we recognise that further work is needed to ensure that it is providing a timely and effective service for customers.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

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Rupert Lowe:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much was spent on (a) translation and (b) interpretation for people contacting her Department in 2024. \p Andrew Western: A) The spend on translation for people contacting the Department in 2024 was £882,118.

B) The spend on interpretation for people contacting the department in 2024 was £6,345,275. This includes access costs such as BSL etc.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

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Ellie Chowns:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make it her policy to automatically publish her Department's (a) internal process review statistics on an annual basis and (b) all internal process reviews. \p Sir Stephen Timms: For the last two operational years the department has reported on the Internal Process Reviews it undertakes in its Annual Report and Accounts. This is alongside reporting on the wider activities of its Advanced Customer Support Teams (available here: DWP annual report and accounts 2022 to 2023 - GOV.UK and here: DWP annual report and accounts 2023 to 2024 - GOV.UK). The department continues to consider what further information can be published in future Accounts.

The department also already has plans to publish further, separate information on its Internal Process Review in a way that shows what the Department has learned from these cases and the improvements that have been made, but which importantly does not disclose the sensitive, personal and confidential information that can surround these cases. Publication is planned to start by 31 March 2025.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

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Alicia Kearns:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of holding a public consultation before implementing the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Bill. \p Andrew Western: DWP continues to seek feedback on the Bill through regular engagement with key stakeholders, including at official and ministerial level. This will ensure the measures are designed to be effective and take into consideration wider feedback from the financial sector, welfare organisations, business representative organisations and others.

There will be Codes of Practice for the Eligibility Verification Measure, Information Gathering and Debt Recovery powers, which DWP will publicly consult on before publication.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

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Dr Caroline Johnson:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of items of correspondence from Parliamentarians received by (a) her Department, (b) herself and (c) her ministerial team have not received a substantive response in each month since August 2024. \p Andrew Western: The Department does not keep this information centrally and therefore it is not readily available. Providing the information that the Department does hold would incur disproportionate costs.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-02-10 conversation_125

Ann Davies:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions she has had with the Welsh Government on the potential merits of devolving powers related to the administration of the social security system to Wales. \p Andrew Western: The Secretary of State has not had any discussions with the Welsh Government about the devolution of the administration of the social security system to Wales.

The Government’s commitments on further devolution were outlined in our manifesto. We have no plans to devolve the administration of social security to Wales.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

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Sarah Bool:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of excluding military compensation from income calculation when determining eligibility for (a) Universal Credit and (b) sickness benefits. \p Sir Stephen Timms: War Pensions and Armed Forces Compensation Payments are not taken into account in Universal Credit. Guaranteed Income Payments, Service Attributable Pensions and service-attributable, non-taxable Service Invalidity Pensions are also not taken into account. New Style Employment Support Allowance (ESA) disregards any guaranteed income scheme payable under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme.

In the legacy income-related benefits, e.g. income-related ESA, there is a statutory £10 weekly disregard. However, Local Authorities have discretionary powers fully to disregard ‘war pension’ income in the assessment of Housing Benefit.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-02-10 conversation_127

David Taylor:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that the Child Maintenance Service takes action against people committing fraud by hiding assets in order to avoid paying child maintenance. \p Andrew Western: Most parents pay some or all their maintenance liability without issue however, the Child Maintenance Service is aware of a small number of parents whose maintenance liability is inconsistent with their financial resources, usually because they can choose to support themselves via a complex arrangement of assets instead of, or in addition to, taking a salary.

Cases involving complex income or suspected fraudulent behaviour can be looked into by the FIU. This is a specialist team which can request information from financial institutions to check the accuracy of information the CMS is given.

In the quarter ending September 2024, 300 financial investigation cases were referred to the Financial Investigations Unit (FIU) in addition to 875 ongoing cases from previous quarters. In the same quarter, 340 financial investigations were completed of which 210 resulted in a maintenance assessment change.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

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David Taylor:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that the Child Maintenance Service takes action against people who are in arrears. \p Andrew Western: The Child Maintenance Service (CMS) will do everything within its powers to make sure parents comply and has made significant improvements to the process to speed up action when payments first break down and to target enforcement action more effectively.

Where parents fail to take responsibility for paying for their children, the CMS will not hesitate to use the full range of strong enforcement powers available. These include, using Enforcement Agents (previously known as bailiffs) to take control of goods, forcing the sale of property, removal of driving license or UK passport, deductions directly from earnings and bank accounts or even commitment to prison.

8% (£682.1 million) of the total maintenance due to be paid since the CMS began, remains to be collected through Collect & Pay but this is falling.

In the past year to September 2024, the CMS collected £16.8 million from paying parents with civil enforcement actions in process and an additional £5.4 million from paying parents with our most serious enforcement action in process.

In the twelve months to September 2024, there were 2,857 applications to the courts in England, Wales and Scotland for our most serious enforcement powers. Of these the courts issued two immediate prison sentences and 316 suspended prison sentences.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-02-10 conversation_129

Ben Lake:To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many and what proportion of (a) Paying Parents and (b) Receiving Parents using the Child Maintenance Service disclosed domestic abuse in 2023-24. \p Andrew Western: Child Maintenance Service (CMS) did not capture the data requested on proportion of (a) Paying Parents and (b) Receiving Parents using the Child Maintenance Service who disclosed domestic abuse in 2023-24. Therefore, this information is not readily available to provide. To extract this data would involve the manual review of all CMS cases, at a significant cost to the department and taxpayer.

The Department is assessing how it can provide statistics on domestic abuse now the application fee exemption statistics are no longer published. The Department's Chief Statistician will oversee the development of these statistics to make sure they meet the Code of Practice for Statistics.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

UK Parliament Hansard data: wrans/answers2025-02-10 conversation_130

Sir Julian Lewis:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent steps he has taken to facilitate the (a) recovery and (b) disclosure of medical records held in (i) the Merlin database and (ii) other Departmental archives of service personnel present at UK atomic bomb tests. \p Al Carns: The Government is deeply grateful to all those who participated in the UK nuclear testing programme. We recognise their Service and the huge contribution they have made to the UK’s security.

I have asked officials to look seriously into unresolved questions regarding medical records as a priority, and this is now underway.

This work will enable us to better understand what information the Department holds in relation to the medical testing of Service personnel who took part in the UK nuclear weapons tests.
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Source: hansard.parliament.uk (2025-02-10)

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Samantha Niblett:To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress his Department has made on granting retrospective pension arrangements to Gurkha veterans who served in the armed forces. \p Al Carns: The Government greatly values the contribution that Gurkhas make in support of the UK’s security and defence and takes its responsibilities to our Gurkha veterans very seriously.

The legal basis for Gurkha pensions has been upheld by three Judicial Reviews since 2003, including a case that went to the European Court of Human Rights in 2018. The Government maintains that the 1948 Gurkha Pension Scheme continues to provide a good income for our Gurkha veterans living in Nepal, in accordance with the original scheme design.

The Government remains committed to supporting Gurkhas and their families during and after their service with the British Army, as demonstrated by the increase in funding via the Gurkha Welfare Trust, including a £24 million uplift to the medical and healthcare Grant-in-Aid already in place and an extension in principle to that Grant in Aid beyond 2029.

We remain open to conversations about what more could be done to meet the welfare needs of Gurkhas, in both the UK and in Nepal. As the Minister for Veterans and People, I am looking forward to meeting the Nepali Ambassador in the coming weeks.