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, what the annual budget was for the (a) Pensions Regulator and (b) Health and Safety Executive in each year since 2005.
Answered by Torsten Bell - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)
Both the Health and Safety Executive and the Pensions Regulator are funded from a mix of sources. These include direct government funding, levies on industry (in the case of the Pensions Regulator) and from charging or cost recoveries.
The full spend, and financial breakdowns, for these bodies by year can be found in their respective Annual Report and Accounts. This information is available in the public domain via The Pensions Regulator and Health and Safety Executive respective ARAs. They can be found using the following links:
The Pensions Regulator (see Financial Review sections)
HSE Annual Reports and Accounts (see statement of Cashflows section)
[ARCHIVED CONTENT] Reports produced by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of employment advisers that will be employed to work in community healthcare settings.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
With 2.8 million people out of work due to health conditions, Connect to Work is part of the Government’s plan to get Britain working again. Connect to Work is designed to give local areas considerable flexibility in determining how they deliver it, including decisions about integration into health care settings.
Connect to Work is rolling out across all areas of England and Wales. As of 12 November 2025, 23 of the 49 delivery areas have a live service funded by Connect to Work. Every delivery area is expected to be open for participants by early 2026. Further details will be set out as more areas go live.
JobCentre Plus sites also have discretion to co-locate work coaches and Disability Employment Advisers, in health settings (including GP surgeries) with agreements made locally.
The Department has a regular quarterly GP forum that includes the BMA and representative bodies for GPs where Employment Support policies and programmes are discussed. There is a DWP Chief medical Advisor Clinical Advisory Group and ad hoc meetings focussed to discuss GP involvement in health and work policy.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many GP surgeries will have employment advisors; and what his planned timetable is for rollout.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
With 2.8 million people out of work due to health conditions, Connect to Work is part of the Government’s plan to get Britain working again. Connect to Work is designed to give local areas considerable flexibility in determining how they deliver it, including decisions about integration into health care settings.
Connect to Work is rolling out across all areas of England and Wales. As of 12 November 2025, 23 of the 49 delivery areas have a live service funded by Connect to Work. Every delivery area is expected to be open for participants by early 2026. Further details will be set out as more areas go live.
JobCentre Plus sites also have discretion to co-locate work coaches and Disability Employment Advisers, in health settings (including GP surgeries) with agreements made locally.
The Department has a regular quarterly GP forum that includes the BMA and representative bodies for GPs where Employment Support policies and programmes are discussed. There is a DWP Chief medical Advisor Clinical Advisory Group and ad hoc meetings focussed to discuss GP involvement in health and work policy.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what engagement he has had with (a) the BMA and (b) GP surgeries on embedding employment advisers in GP surgeries.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
With 2.8 million people out of work due to health conditions, Connect to Work is part of the Government’s plan to get Britain working again. Connect to Work is designed to give local areas considerable flexibility in determining how they deliver it, including decisions about integration into health care settings.
Connect to Work is rolling out across all areas of England and Wales. As of 12 November 2025, 23 of the 49 delivery areas have a live service funded by Connect to Work. Every delivery area is expected to be open for participants by early 2026. Further details will be set out as more areas go live.
JobCentre Plus sites also have discretion to co-locate work coaches and Disability Employment Advisers, in health settings (including GP surgeries) with agreements made locally.
The Department has a regular quarterly GP forum that includes the BMA and representative bodies for GPs where Employment Support policies and programmes are discussed. There is a DWP Chief medical Advisor Clinical Advisory Group and ad hoc meetings focussed to discuss GP involvement in health and work policy.
Asked by: John Hayes (Conservative - South Holland and The Deepings)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will list the titles of all the events organised by Civil Service networks in his Department since 2017.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost.
Asked by: James Naish (Labour - Rushcliffe)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the Child Maintenance Service do not send arrears letters to people who pay on time.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
Robust processes are in place to ensure correspondence issued by the Child Maintenance Service (CMS) is accurate and reflects each customer’s payment status. CMS systems monitor compliance of expected payments and where payments are not made in full and on time, arrears or missed payment notifications will be issued. Where a payment has been made in full and on time, no arrears letter should be sent.
The CMS are committed to modernising and regularly reviews processes and updates guidance to staff to minimise errors and improve accuracy.
Asked by: Max Wilkinson (Liberal Democrat - Cheltenham)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential impact of the level of SEND diagnoses on levels of welfare spending.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
It is not possible to quantify the totality of the impact of SEND in terms of welfare spending. The department will continue to work closely with the Department for Education on improving the support for and chances of all young people.
Asked by: Lewis Cocking (Conservative - Broxbourne)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much was spent on benefit payments to foreign nationals in the 2024-2025 financial year.
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: Siân Berry (Green Party - Brighton Pavilion)
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 implications for his Department's policies of Turn2us's report entitled From stigma to support, published in October 2025; and what steps he is taking to increase the number of work coaches.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The findings from the Turn2us report, entitled ‘From Stigma to Support’, demonstrate the importance of tackling stigma in the benefits system and the need for reform to build a more supportive and tailored service.
As set out in the Get Britain Working White Paper, we are reforming Jobcentre Plus and creating a new service across Great Britain. Our new service will remove the stigma of going to a Jobcentre and move away from the ‘one size fits all’ approach that Jobcentre Plus has today. We will shift the focus of the customer-work coach relationship away from compliance and box-ticking to make room for more constructive, personalised, and career-focused discussions.
In the Pathways to Work Green Paper, we set out our Pathways to Work Guarantee. This will be backed by £1 billion a year of new, additional funding by the end of the decade. This will help us build towards a guaranteed offer of personalised work, health and skills support for all disabled people and those with health conditions on out of work benefits.
There are now over 1000 Pathways to Work Advisors in Jobcentres across England, Scotland and Wales who are helping disabled people and people with health conditions towards and into work. This increased deployment will help ensure that everyone impacted by the benefit change in April 2026 is offered support.
People affected by the changes will be able to access a conversation about their needs, goals and aspirations; offered one-to-one follow-on support, and given help to access additional work, health and skills support that can meet their needs.
We have also launched the Timms Review with the aim of ensuring we have a system that supports disabled people to achieve better health, higher living standards and greater independence, including through employment. To ensure lived experience is at the heart of its work, we are co-producing the Review with disabled people, the organisations that represent them, and other experts. Once in place, the Review’s steering group will agree the approach to considering evidence and gathering input.
The Department continually impacts and assesses the service being offered to customers. Staff numbers, including the number of Work Coaches, and demand for Jobcentre services are reviewed on an ongoing basis, in line with the latest economic and benefit forecasts.
Asked by: Jim Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party - Strangford)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to promote more positive mental wellbeing in the workplace.
Answered by Diana Johnson - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Good work is generally good for health and wellbeing, so we want everyone to get work and get on in work, whoever they are and wherever they live. In our March Green Paper, we set out our Pathways to Work Guarantee, backed by £1 billion a year of new additional funding by 2030. We will build towards a guaranteed offer of personalised work, health and skills support for all disabled people and those with health conditions on out of work benefits.
In recognition of employer’s vital role in addressing health-related economic activity we appointed Sir Charlie Mayfield to lead the Keep Britain Working independent review, which was published on 5 November. In partnership with DBT and DHSC colleagues we are immediately launching Vanguards to test new employer-led approaches to support individuals to stay in work, putting his key recommendations into action from day one, including working with Northern Ireland and the other Devolved Governments. In the review, Sir Charlie has recommended that mental health in young people should be a potential priority area as a deep dive for the Vanguards.
Additionally, the DWP and DHSC Joint Work and Health Directorate has developed a digital information service for employers, continues to oversee the Disability Confident Scheme, and continues to increase access to Occupational Health.