Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government on what date they expect to receive the Health and Safety Executive's final restriction opinion on the risks of using lead in ammunition to human health and the environment, which had been due for submission in March 2023.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The UK REACH restriction process relating to lead in ammunition was initiated in 2021 by the then Defra Secretary of State, with the agreement of the Scottish and Welsh Governments. This triggered a process under the UK REACH regulations, with the dossier preparation and opinion process led by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). The two consultations which form part of this process both garnered large numbers of responses (2859 and 8159) necessitating extensions to the legislative deadlines in order to take account of the information submitted.
We expect to receive HSE's final restriction opinion on the risks of using lead in ammunition to human health and the environment in autumn 2024. The decision to apply any restrictions, or not to do so, will subsequently be made by the Defra Secretary of State, with the consent of the Scottish and Welsh Ministers.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they will report on the outcome of the Government Oversight Group review of the stewardship regime for professional use of Second Generation Anticoagulant Rodenticides in the UK after five years of operation; and what steps they are taking to end the use of previously banned substances still being deployed in the countryside to poison wildlife.
Answered by Viscount Younger of Leckie - Shadow Minister (Work and Pensions)
The detailed work of the review of the stewardship scheme for anticoagulant rodenticides is ongoing.
The Government Oversight Group for Rodenticides, chaired by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) and the industry’s representative body, the Campaign for Responsible Rodenticide Use met in December 2022 to discuss the existing stewardship regime and agree areas of focus for its review. Discussions also included establishing a timetable for the work required to take the review forward during 2023.
With respect to the issue of wildlife poisoning, there are robust, multi-agency arrangements in place for enforcing the illegal supply and use of chemicals; with the illegal poisoning of protected species investigated by a dedicated Wildlife Incident Investigation Scheme.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the plans outlined by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Spending Review to cap the amount of rent that Housing Benefit will cover in the social sector to the relevant Local Housing Allowance (LHA), what assessment they have made of the impact of the proposed application of the cap on supported housing providers based in those parts of the country where there is a significant gap between LHA rates and the cost of provision.
Answered by Lord Henley
In his Written Ministerial Statement to the House of Commons on 15th September 2016 the Secretary of State confirmed that the new funding model will ensure that the supported housing sector will be funded at the same level it would have otherwise been in 2019/20, taking into account the effect of Government policy on social sector rents.
An online consultation on this new model seeking the views of the sector was launched on 21st November 2016 and will run until 13th February 2017 and can be accessed from the Gov.UK website.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government, further to the plans outlined by the Chancellor of the Exchequer in the Spending Review to cap the amount of rent that Housing Benefit will cover in the social sector to the relevant Local Housing Allowance (LHA), whether they will ensure that ring-fenced funding for local authorities will meet the shortfall between LHA rates and the cost of provision of supported housing.
Answered by Lord Henley
In his Written Ministerial Statement to the House of Commons on 15th September 2016 the Secretary of State confirmed that the new funding model will ensure that the supported housing sector will be funded at the same level it would have otherwise been in 2019/20, taking into account the effect of Government policy on social sector rents.
An online consultation on this new model seeking the views of the sector was launched on 21st November 2016 and will run until 13th February 2017 and can be accessed from the Gov.UK website.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the total budget for the National Benefit Fraud Hotline in 2014–15; how many allegations of suspected benefit fraud were reported via that hotline or the online reporting form in 2014–15; what was the total cost of investigating those allegations; and how much was identified in recoverable overpayments by those investigations.
Answered by Lord Freud
The Fraud and Error Service (FES), part of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is responsible for the prevention, detection and where appropriate, investigation of Fraud and Error against all benefits administered by and on behalf of DWP.
The National Benefit Fraud Hotline (NBFH) is outsourced; therefore there is a yearly cost for outsourcing as opposed to a budget. The total outsourcing cost the NBFH for 2014/15 is £303,480. This figure covers the 52 week period commencing 31 March 2014.
The available data on allegations of benefit fraud reported via the NBFD or online only covers incidents recorded on the internal FES Fraud Referral and Information Management System (FRAIMS.) It does not give the total volume of enquiries and calls made to NBFH, only those that were entered onto FRAIMS. There are various reasons for allegations not being entered onto FRAIMS, including the fact that not all enquiries and calls are of an appropriate nature. In 2014/15 there were 207,600 cases of suspected benefit fraud reported via the NBFH that were entered onto FRAIMS or reported online.
We are unable to provide a precise response on the cost of investigating these allegations because some of the investigations from the allegations made in 2014/15 are still on going. We are able to provide an estimate of the cost of investigations that achieved an outcome in 2014/15 which were initially triggered by an allegation made through the hotline or online reporting. We cannot distinguish the exact costs of investigating NBFH allegations from the total cost of investigating all allegations and so this figure is an estimate, calculated by apportioning total costs of Local Service that were undertaken in 2014/15 on the basis of Positive Outcomes as this is the main cost driver. This was estimated to be £16.9m. This figure only includes direct costs of Investigations – there are no overheads included.
As with the cost of investigation, we are unable to provide a precise response on the amount identified in recoverable overpayments because some of the investigations from the allegations made in 2014/15 are still ongoing. We have instead provided the value of overpayments that achieved an outcome in 2014/15 which were initially triggered by an allegation made through the hotline or online reporting. £46,068,848 was identified as recoverable.
Note that identifying overpayments also prevents a significant amount of future losses which are not included in the value of recoverable overpayments identified shown here. Referrals from members of the public therefore provide good value for money.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many people currently receive Universal Credit, and at what cost to the public purse.
Answered by Lord Freud
The Universal Credit programme publishes official experimental statistics which are available on GOV.UK.
The statistics to 10 September show that 125,877 people were on the Universal Credit caseload. Cost information for the current UC caseload is not available for publication.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government how the official monthly rate of sanctions applied to Jobseeker's Allowance claimants is calculated.
Answered by Lord Freud
The Department calculates a monthly sanctions rate for Jobseekers Allowance claimants based on the number of sanctions in a month divided by the Claimant Count.
The data underpinning the calculations are DWP’s statistics on decisions to apply a sanction and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) statistics on the number of people claiming JSA (the Claimant Count). These are publicly available Official Statistics.
More detail on the calculation of the monthly sanctions rate can be found in the statistical ad-hoc publication, “JSA and ESA benefit sanctions rates: explanation of methodology”, available on GOV.UK. A copy of the publication is also attached here.
Asked by: Baroness Jones of Moulsecoomb (Green Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what was the annual rate of sanctions applied to Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants in each of the years from 2010 to 2014 inclusive, calculated by dividing the number of all those sanctioned in each year by the total number who claimed Jobseeker's Allowance in each year.
Answered by Lord Freud
The information is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.