Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what recent assessment they have made of the effectiveness of benefit sanctions in supporting claimants into sustained employment.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department for Work and Pensions published a draft report on the Impact of Benefit Sanctions on Employment Outcomes, on the 6th April 2023.
The draft report is available on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-impact-of-benefit-sanctions-on-employment-outcomes-draft-report
And can also be found in the attached document.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to address the under-registration of eligible children for free school meals following the extension of entitlement to all children in households receiving Universal Credit; and whether they plan to introduce free school meal auto-enrolment to ensure all eligible children receive the support to which they are entitled.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
This government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity and tackling child poverty. We are extending free school meals (FSM) to all children from households in receipt of Universal Credit from September 2026, lifting 100,000 children across England out of poverty and putting £500 back in families’ pockets.
We want to ensure that all families who need it are able to claim the support they are eligible for. Expanding FSM to all children in households claiming Universal Credit will make it easier for parents to know whether they are entitled to receive free meals.
To support take-up of free meals, we are also rolling out improvements to the checking system that we make available to all local authorities to help verify eligibility for free meals. This will make the process of claiming free meals more seamless for families by allowing them to directly check whether they can receive this entitlement.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Sherlock on 22 July (HL9231), when their review on Universal Credit will be published.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Government has committed to reviewing Universal Credit to make sure it is doing the job we want it to, to make work pay and tackle poverty.
The Minister for Social Security and Disability is leading this work and is engaging with a wide range of organisations and people, including those with first-hand experience of claiming Universal Credit, those who support them and those with expertise in the system and how it works. We are hosting workshops, roundtables and focus groups and undertaking research, including a survey of 10,000 customers.
We will continue to work closely with stakeholders throughout this process and will provide an update at an appropriate time.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government when they plan to publish the child poverty strategy.
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
This Government is determined to bring down child poverty. The Child Poverty Taskforce was established by the Prime Minister to develop an ambitious child poverty strategy to achieve this. The strategy will be published in the autumn.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what action they will take in response to the report by the National Audit Office Managing children's residential care, published on 12 September.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department welcomes the National Audit Office's (NAO) report and its recommendations. Many of the report’s themes chime with the action already being taken as part of the government's reform programme.
The department is reforming children’s social care (CSC) with a £2 billion investment this Parliament which will enable local authorities to prioritise prevention and keep more families together safely, reducing the number of children needing care.
We have introduced the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill, which will give us more powers to regulate the broken care market.
The department’s investment and legislation will transform care. We will recruit more foster carers, build children’s homes with the right support in the right places, innovate to support those with complex needs and regulate to ensure safety and quality of provision. The introduction of Regional Care Cooperatives will enable local authorities to better plan, forecast and commission places and negotiate with private providers, ensuring they can provide the placements children need at a sustainable cost to taxpayers.
The department welcomes the important insight of the NAO and will continue to reflect on how to bring about the change needed to tackle the challenges across the CSC system.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question
To ask His Majesty's Government whether they plan to announce a commencement order for the socio-economic duty in section 1 of the Equality Act 2010.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
I refer the Noble Lord to the answer of 5 June 2025, Official Report, PQ HC 53909.
Question:
To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, when she plans to enact the socioeconomic measures in the Equality Act 2010.
Answer:
The Government is committed to commencing the socio-economic duty in the Equality Act 2010. The duty will require specified public bodies, when making strategic decisions, to consider actively how their decisions might help to reduce the inequalities associated with socio-economic disadvantage.
We will work in partnership with public authorities, civil society and others in order to ensure that the implementation of the duty is as effective as possible. As part of this, we have included questions in relation to the socio-economic duty in a call for evidence on equality law, which was launched on 7 April and will be open until 30 June. This will enable public authorities and others to input into plans in relation to the socio-economic duty at an early stage.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the potential impact of reforms to incapacity and disability benefits on the employment rate of people with disabilities; and what plans they have to evaluate and monitor the impact of these reforms once they have been introduced.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Pathways to Work Green Paper sets out our plans for reform to stop people from falling into inactivity, restore trust and fairness in the system and protect disabled people.
The plans include increased funding for employment support for disabled people, rising to an additional £1 billion per year by the end of the Parliament.
The Office of Budget Responsibility has committed to produce an assessment of the labour market impacts of the proposals in the Pathways to Work Green Paper at the time of the autumn budget.
Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’.
A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper and to monitor and evaluate their impact will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what analyses they carried out to suggest that disability benefit reforms will increase the employment rate of people with disabilities.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Pathways to Work Green Paper sets out our plans for reform to stop people from falling into inactivity, restore trust and fairness in the system and protect disabled people.
The disability employment rate is affected by external factors such as the composition of the underlying disabled population and overall labour market performance, as well as DWP activity. The Office of Budget Responsibility has committed to produce an assessment of the labour market impacts of the proposals in the Pathways to Work Green Paper at the time of the autumn budget.
Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’.
A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they will take to evaluate the impact of disability benefits reform on the employment rate of people with disabilities.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Office of Budget Responsibility has committed to produce an assessment of the labour market impacts of the proposals in the Pathways to Work Green Paper at the time of the autumn budget.
Information on the impacts of the Pathways to Work Green Paper will be published in due course, and some information was published alongside the Spring Statement. These publications can be found in ‘Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working Green Paper’.
A programme of analysis to support development and evaluation of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed in the coming months.
Asked by: Lord Bishop of Leicester (Bishops - Bishops)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Barran on 29 April (HL3846), what plans they have to (1) roll out Family Hubs to the remaining 242 local authorities, and (2) sustain the funding for the Family Hubs programme beyond 2025.
Answered by Baroness Barran - Shadow Minister (Education)
The department is currently investing around £300 million in 75 local authorities, half of all upper tier local authorities in England, to transform to a Family Hub model. Funding has been targeted to the most deprived local authorities, ensuring families get the support they need.
The department has also invested in a £12 million transformation fund to open Family Hubs in 13 additional local authorities in England.
All 88 local authorities now have opened at least one Family Hub, with over 400 government-funded Family Hub sites now open across the country.
Further funding for the current programmes is dependent on future fiscal events. It was confirmed at Spring Budget that the next spending review will come after a General Election, the timing of which is still to be determined.
The government would like to see Family Hubs across the country, but it is crucial that the department now focuses on delivering well in these local authorities and building the evidence base.