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Written Question
Employment: Immunosuppression
Monday 30th May 2022

Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what guidance they have given to Work Coaches for recommending employment requiring in-person attendance to immunocompromised individuals.

Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott

The Department is committed to providing the best possible support for all claimants to meet their individual circumstances. Claimants with a health condition or disability, including those who are immunocompromised, continue to have tailored commitments agreed based on their personal circumstances, including considering the impact of their health and wider situation.

Any work-related requirements are set in discussion with the claimant, tailored to their individual capability and circumstances, making them realistic and achievable. The guidance available to DWP staff outlines the easements which may be applied including that work search reflects the type and location of jobs which are appropriate to the individual.

Although DWP does not routinely provide guidance specifically on supporting people who are immunocompromised, we do ensure that staff are aware of the sources of information available to them relating to medical conditions that are associated with this. Staff are signposted to tools, guidance support and websites to effectively use resources from both internal and external sites, such as information directly from the NHS.

This ensures that staff can access the most up to date advice and can use this to inform how they support individual customers.

We empower our Work Coaches to use all available resources to best support each claimant, however they are not trained to provide comprehensive healthcare advice therefore while we do discuss the implications certain jobs may have on their health, we would not advise against jobs the claimant wishes to apply for.


Written Question
Coronavirus: Employment
Friday 11th March 2022

Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what support employers will be asked to provide for employees who are clinically extremely vulnerable to COVID-19 to enable them to continue working safely following the removal of COVID-19 from risk assessments.

Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott

The Department of Health and Social Care have the lead and alongside UK Health Security Agency released Guidance for people previously considered clinically extremely vulnerable from COVID-19, which is hosted on the Coronavirus (COVID‑19) webpages on gov.uk. This was most recently updated on 25 February 2022. In order to assist employers, the Health and Safety Executive provides a link to this guidance on its website.


Written Question
Coronavirus: Vaccination
Tuesday 19th October 2021

Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what information and guidance they will provide to employers on how best to protect people who are severely immunosuppressed and may not mount an adequate immune response to the COVID-19 vaccine.

Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott

I refer the hon. Peer to the answer given to his previous question HL2092.

Throughout the pandemic, HSE has encouraged businesses to manage risks in order to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 in workplaces through the provision of detailed guidance. HSE published updated guidance on 19th July to reflect changes as a result of the lifting of coronavirus restrictions in England Keeping workplaces safe as coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions are removed (hse.gov.uk).

HSE does not consider vaccination of employees to be a workplace control. Businesses must control the risks and review and update their risk assessment to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 by providing adequate ventilation, regular cleaning and frequent handwashing. Businesses can also continue to reduce the risk of transmission during the pandemic by taking measures to limit the number of people their workers are in contact with, and UK government guidance on working safely provides further information and advice on these measures covering a range of different types of work.

Employers’ health and safety responsibilities include taking reasonable steps to protect all workers and others from the risk of transmission of COVID-19 in connection with their work activities. As these control measures apply to all workers, regardless of their relative levels of vulnerability or the potential outcome, there are no expectations of additional control measures for Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (CEV) workers or the need for individual risk assessments.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) advises employers to have individual discussions with their CEV employees about any workplace concerns and understand what is in place to protect them. There is specific guidance on the HSE website to support employers to do this https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/working-safely/protect-people.htm


Written Question
Employment: Coronavirus
Tuesday 19th October 2021

Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the risk associated with severely immunosuppressed people, including kidney transplant patients, returning to the workplace; and whether specific advice and workplace support will be provided to this group.

Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott

I refer the hon. Peer to the answer given to his previous question HL2092.

Throughout the pandemic, HSE has encouraged businesses to manage risks in order to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 in workplaces through the provision of detailed guidance. HSE published updated guidance on 19th July to reflect changes as a result of the lifting of coronavirus restrictions in England Keeping workplaces safe as coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions are removed (hse.gov.uk).

HSE does not consider vaccination of employees to be a workplace control. Businesses must control the risks and review and update their risk assessment to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 by providing adequate ventilation, regular cleaning and frequent handwashing. Businesses can also continue to reduce the risk of transmission during the pandemic by taking measures to limit the number of people their workers are in contact with, and UK government guidance on working safely provides further information and advice on these measures covering a range of different types of work.

Employers’ health and safety responsibilities include taking reasonable steps to protect all workers and others from the risk of transmission of COVID-19 in connection with their work activities. As these control measures apply to all workers, regardless of their relative levels of vulnerability or the potential outcome, there are no expectations of additional control measures for Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (CEV) workers or the need for individual risk assessments.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) advises employers to have individual discussions with their CEV employees about any workplace concerns and understand what is in place to protect them. There is specific guidance on the HSE website to support employers to do this https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/working-safely/protect-people.htm


Written Question
Coronavirus: Vaccination
Tuesday 19th October 2021

Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps they will take to support (1) people living with stage 5 kidney disease, and (2) severely immunosuppressed people in the workplace, given recently published data show these groups are not adequately protected following two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott

I refer the hon. Peer to the answer given to his previous question HL2092.

Throughout the pandemic, HSE has encouraged businesses to manage risks in order to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 in workplaces through the provision of detailed guidance. HSE published updated guidance on 19th July to reflect changes as a result of the lifting of coronavirus restrictions in England Keeping workplaces safe as coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions are removed (hse.gov.uk).

HSE does not consider vaccination of employees to be a workplace control. Businesses must control the risks and review and update their risk assessment to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 by providing adequate ventilation, regular cleaning and frequent handwashing. Businesses can also continue to reduce the risk of transmission during the pandemic by taking measures to limit the number of people their workers are in contact with, and UK government guidance on working safely provides further information and advice on these measures covering a range of different types of work.

Employers’ health and safety responsibilities include taking reasonable steps to protect all workers and others from the risk of transmission of COVID-19 in connection with their work activities. As these control measures apply to all workers, regardless of their relative levels of vulnerability or the potential outcome, there are no expectations of additional control measures for Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (CEV) workers or the need for individual risk assessments.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) advises employers to have individual discussions with their CEV employees about any workplace concerns and understand what is in place to protect them. There is specific guidance on the HSE website to support employers to do this https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/working-safely/protect-people.htm


Written Question
Industrial Health and Safety: Coronavirus
Tuesday 27th July 2021

Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what plans they have to produce guidance for employers, to accompany the lifting of COVID-19 related restrictions on 19 July, about the health and safety of employees who are immunocompromised or immunosuppressed and therefore not protected by the COVID-19 vaccine.

Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott

Throughout the pandemic, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) has encouraged businesses to manage risks in order to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 in workplaces through the provision of detailed guidance. HSE published updated guidance on 19 July - Keeping workplaces safe as coronavirus (COVID-19) restrictions are removed (which can be found at https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/roadmap-further-guidance.htm) - to reflect changes as a result of the lifting of coronavirus restrictions in England.

HSE does not consider vaccination of employees to be a workplace control. Businesses must control the risks and review and update their risk assessment to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 by providing adequate ventilation, regular cleaning and frequent handwashing. Businesses can also continue to reduce the risk of transmission during the pandemic by taking measures to limit the number of people their workers are in contact with, and UK government guidance on working safely (which can be found at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/working-safely-during-covid-19) provides further information and advice on these measures covering a range of different types of work.

Employers’ health and safety responsibilities include taking reasonable steps to protect all workers and others from the risk of transmission of COVID-19 in connection with their work activities. As these control measures apply to all workers, regardless of their relative levels of vulnerability or the potential outcome, there are no expectations of additional control measures for Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (CEV) workers or the need for individual risk assessments.

HSE advises employers to have individual discussions with their CEV employees about any workplace concerns and understand what is in place to protect them. There is specific guidance on the HSE website to support employers to do this https://www.hse.gov.uk/coronavirus/working-safely/protect-people.htm


Written Question
Pensions
Thursday 11th February 2021

Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many arrangements the Pensions Regulator has made with pension schemes with a deficit in excess of £10 million but less than £25 million since 2005; with which schemes any such arrangements have been made; and for each such scheme, (1) how the deficit was met, and (2) whether there was any difference in the reported deficit and that which had to be met.

Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott

The information requested on arrangements made by the Pensions Regulator is either not available, or could only be provided at disproportionate cost.


Written Question
Pensions
Thursday 11th February 2021

Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many arrangements the Pensions Regulator has made with pension schemes with a deficit in excess of £25 million but less than £50 million since 2005; with which schemes any such arrangements have been made; and for each such scheme, (1) how the deficit was met, and (2) whether there was any difference in the reported deficit and that which had to be met.

Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott

The information requested on arrangements made by the Pensions Regulator is either not available, or could only be provided at disproportionate cost.


Written Question
Pensions
Thursday 11th February 2021

Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many arrangements the Pensions Regulator has made with pension schemes with a deficit in excess of £50 million since 2005; with which schemes any such arrangements have been made; and for each such scheme, (1) how the deficit was met, and (2) whether there was any difference in the reported deficit and that which had to be met.

Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott

The information requested on arrangements made by the Pensions Regulator is either not available, or could only be provided at disproportionate cost.


Written Question
Pension Protection Fund
Wednesday 23rd December 2020

Asked by: Lord Mendelsohn (Labour - Life peer)

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask Her Majesty's Government which company pension schemes have been put into the Pension Protection Fund since 2015; and when were each of these schemes transferred to the Pension Protection Fund.

Answered by Baroness Stedman-Scott

The information requested is in the attached table.