Asked by: Lord Sharpe of Epsom (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish quarterly labour market transition-flow data showing movements between inactivity, employment, and unemployment.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Quarterly labour market transition flow data is published by ONS in table X02: Labour Force Survey flows estimates - Office for National Statistics.
The Get Britain Working: Labour Market Insights October 2025 publication included the release of a series of data tables showing from January 2019 to May 2025 movements between different Universal Credit conditionality regimes each month and UC searching for work into work rates.
Asked by: Rupert Lowe (Independent - Great Yarmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much Universal Credit was paid to (a) foreign nationals and (b) households with refugee status in October 2025.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Richard Holden (Conservative - Basildon and Billericay)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department plans to review the level of regulation of small quarrying and stone-processing firms.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has no current plans to review the level of regulation of small quarrying and stone-processing firms.
The Government is committed to reducing regulatory compliance costs for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SME) and announced in March 2025 a commitment to reduce the administrative burden of regulation by 25% by the end of this Parliament - savings equivalent to £5.6 billion. HSE is committed to playing its part in reducing these administrative burdens whilst maintaining our proportionate regulatory approach to protect people and enable innovation and growth.
Asked by: Neil Duncan-Jordan (Labour - Poole)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether the new Crisis and Resilience Fund will encourage local authorities to offer direct provision of furniture and white goods to those in need; and will the guidance explain the benefits of furniture provision in building up resilience for extremely low-income households.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The new Crisis and Resilience Fund will be introduced from 1 April 2026. This represents the first ever multi-year settlement for locally delivered crisis support. This longer-term funding approach aims to enable local authorities to provide preventative support to communities – working with the voluntary and community sector – as well as assisting people when faced with a financial crisis
We plan to publish guidance for the Crisis and Resilience Fund in January 2026.
Asked by: Richard Foord (Liberal Democrat - Honiton and Sidmouth)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the accuracy of the symptom lists used in disability and capability assessments for people with fibromyalgia; and whether his Department plans to update that guidance.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Personal Independence Payment (PIP) assessment and the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) are functional assessments. They do not evaluate claimants based on their medical diagnosis or health condition alone and claimants are not assessed against a set symptom list for a condition when attending an assessment. Instead, the assessment focuses on how a claimant’s condition affects their mobility and ability to carry out everyday activities.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is committed to ensuring that individuals with Fibromyalgia and other health conditions receive high-quality, accurate assessments. All health professionals (HPs) undergo comprehensive training in disability analysis. Their focus is on understanding the functional impact of a claimant’s condition, rather than its clinical diagnosis.
To support this, DWP provides suppliers with core training and guidance materials on Fibromyalgia. These resources include detailed clinical and functional information relevant to the condition to assist HPs in delivering informed and accurate assessments.
Additionally, all training and guidance materials are currently undergoing a comprehensive review and update. A dedicated team is leading this work to ensure that all materials are aligned with national best practice standards. Independent clinical experts are being engaged to provide external quality assurance, helping to ensure the content remains accurate, relevant, and consistent.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Disability Living Allowance claimants had active contracts with the Motability Scheme in (a) the North East, (b) the North West, and (c) Yorkshire and the Humber in March of each of the last five years up to 2025.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information on Disability Living Allowance claimants with an active Motability Scheme is not held centrally for analytical purposes. Such information could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Disability Living Allowance claimants had active contracts with the Motability Scheme in (a) the East Midlands, (b) the West Midlands, and (c) the East of England in March of each of the last five years up to 2025.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information on Disability Living Allowance claimants with an active Motability Scheme is not held centrally for analytical purposes. Such information could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Neil O'Brien (Conservative - Harborough, Oadby and Wigston)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Disability Living Allowance claimants had active contracts with the Motability Scheme in (a) London, (b) the South East, (c) the South West, and (d) Wales in March of each of the last five years up to 2025.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information on Disability Living Allowance claimants with an active Motability Scheme is not held centrally for analytical purposes. Such information could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Peter Lamb (Labour - Crawley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, following the announcement made on 16 October 2025 regarding the extension of funding to Trailblazer areas under the Get Britain Working programme, what assessment his Department has made of the potential impact of Trailblazer schemes to date on a) employment outcomes b) levels of economic inactivity, and c) associated health and wellbeing indicators.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department developed a Strategic Outline Business Case for the Get Britain Working Trailblazers in March 2025, which followed HM Treasury’s Green Book framework. Within this, an assessment was made of the potential impact of the programme upon employment and associated health outcomes, as well as increasing participation in education and training. An update to the Business Case is being conducted, which will take account of relevant information following the programme launch earlier this year.
The Department will be commissioning an evaluation, starting in December 2025, which is expected to build evidence on the effectiveness of the programme at achieving employment outcomes, reducing levels of economic inactivity, associated health and well-being indicators, increasing participation in education and training, and effectiveness of systems integration. We expect to publish interim findings during the next two years and will develop the value for money assessment once longer term impacts have developed.
Asked by: Luke Akehurst (Labour - North Durham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent assessment his Department has made of the effectiveness of the Health Adjustment Passport in supporting disabled people to (a) enter and (b) remain in employment.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Health Adjustment Passports are voluntary and available to everyone with a health condition or disability.
The Health Adjustment Passport enables disabled people to move more easily into employment and between job roles and reduces the need to repeat personal information about their disability. The Passport supports transitions into employment by providing a tool to enable disabled people to have structured conversations with employers about disability. It acts as a transferable record of the adjustments needed, along with sign posts to available support including Access to Work (AtW).
If a user chooses to share the passport with their employer, it can help to raise the visibility of adjustments and highlight support available, including AtW. In the event the user applies for AtW support, the passport can aid an assessment by providing health and disability information beforehand, enabling support to be put in place more quickly.
Further information on the Health Adjustments Passport can be found on: Health Adjustment Passport - GOV.UK