Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the impact of proposed welfare reform on the projected number of people who are deemed unfit for work by 2030.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The recent Pathways to Work Green Paper announced our plans to abolish the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) and instead use the Personal Independence Payment assessment as the single assessment for additional financial support, subject to parliamentary approval. Once the WCA has been abolished the Department for Work and Pensions will no longer classify people as fit or unfit for work.
The Department published “Spring Statement 2025 health and disability benefit reforms – Impacts” alongside the Spring Statement.
This report contains estimated caseloads for the Universal Credit health element from 2026/27 to 2029/30, categorised by whether claimants are receiving the higher rate or the frozen rate from 2025/26.
By 2029/30 an estimated 2.25 million people, the pre-April 2026 current claimants, will still be receiving the higher rate of the UC health element, frozen at its 2025/26 level. A further 730,000 are forecast to be receiving the new lower rate of the health element. All will receive a standard allowance that has been increased by more than CPI inflation.
Table A5: Benefit units affected by UC health element change
Average caseload over year (1,000s) | 2026/27 | 2027/28 | 2028/29 | 2029/30 |
Pre April 2026 claimants (current) | 2,670 | 2,510 | 2,380 | 2,250 |
Post April 2026 claimants (future) | 120 | 360 | 560 | 730 |
Note: Estimates are after behavioural effects and are rounded to the nearest ten thousand. A benefit unit is a single adult or a married or cohabiting couple and any dependent children.
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 Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what meetings they have planned with Chagossians to discuss the proposed Chagos Islands deal.
Answered by Baroness Chapman of Darlington - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)
The Minister of State, Stephen Doughty, has met with members of the Chagossian community, and officials have also been in regular contact with Chagossians on a range of issues. We will continue to engage with Chagossians in the UK and around the world on the implementation of the agreement at both an official and Ministerial level.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure families of students with special education needs are not charged additional fees as a result of changes to VAT on independent school fees.
Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Minister for Women and Equalities)
Pupils with special educational needs (SEN) and a requirement to attend a private school identified through an education, health and care (EHC) assessment are not impacted by the government’s VAT policy. Where a private school place is necessary to support a child with SEN, the local authority will fund it through an EHC plan. Local authorities can reclaim the cost of VAT added to fees for places that they fund through Section 33 of the VAT Act 1994.
Parents may make a choice that their child should attend a private school, but this is a choice like that made by any parent using the independent sector. Where parents have chosen to send their child to private school rather than a local authority deeming it necessary, VAT will apply to fees.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Northern Ireland Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government what is their timeline for the implementation of all of the aspects of the Command Paper published on 31 January 2024, Safeguarding the Union (CP1021).
Answered by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
This Government is committed to taking all steps necessary to protect Northern Ireland’s place in the UK internal market, and to working in good faith to implement the basis on which devolution was restored. This includes continuing to take forward Safeguarding the Union, and working with all parts of the community - and with the EU - to address any issues relating to the implementation of the Windsor Framework as they arise.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what assumptions they have made in their budget estimates for additional resources gained from the recovery of unpaid tax.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Government expects an additional £6.3 billion per year to be gained by 2029-30 from the measures announced as part of the Budget in October 2024 and Spring Statement 2025. These estimates have been certified by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what additional staff and funding they have provided to allow HMRC to pursue unpaid tax.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
As announced by the Chancellor in July 2024 (and confirmed in the Budget in October 2024) £1.4 billion of funding will be provided to HMRC over the next five years to recruit an additional 5,000 HMRC compliance staff, raising £2.7 billion per year in additional revenue by 2029-30.
In addition, the Government confirmed at the Budget in October 2024 that £262 million will be invested over the next five years, to fund 1,800 HMRC debt management staff, raising £2 billion per year in additional revenue by 2029-30. Further investment of £272m to modernise HMRC’s IT and data systems and increase tax receipts as a result, is expected to raise additional revenue of £700m per year by 2029-30.
As part of the Spring Statement 2025, a package of measures to help further close the tax gap and raise over £800 million in additional gross tax revenue per year by 2029-30 was announced.. Specifically, investment of £100m in 500 additional HMRC compliance staff and £114m in 600 additional HMRC debt management staff, as well as £87m to increase collection of overdue tax debt using Debt Collection Agencies acting on HMRC’s behalf.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask His Majesty's Government what the Barnett consequentials are for Northern Ireland arising from the £1 billion support package announced for employment, health and skills for the disabled and those with long-term medical conditions.
Answered by Lord Livermore - Financial Secretary (HM Treasury)
The Barnett formula is applied when UK Government departmental budgets change, not when additional funding is announced. The Barnett consequentials from the £1 billion employment support package will be confirmed at Phase 2 of the Spending Review 2025.
The Northern Ireland Executive is receiving £18.2 billion in 2025-26, including an additional £1.5 billion through the operation of the Barnett formula. This is the largest spending review settlement in real terms since devolution and ensures that the Northern Ireland Executive continues to receive over 24% more per person than equivalent UK Government spending in the rest of the UK, including the 2024 restoration financial package.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many lorries have been prevented from entering Northern Ireland and returned to Great Britain as a result of internal UK market checks in the past 12 months.
Answered by Baroness Hayman of Ullock - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
In line with the commitments we have made, as we move to our new UK internal market system, we will ensure that the only checks when goods move within the UK internal market system are those conducted by UK authorities as part of a risk-based or intelligence-led approach to tackle criminality, abuse of the scheme, smuggling and disease risks. But in order not to undermine that approach, as is the case across the UK we do not disclose the specific number or nature of interventions made by UK authorities.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask His Majesty's Government whether the £1 billion employment, health and skills support package for disabled people and those with long-term medical conditions will be available to people across the entire UK.
Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
We announced in the Pathways to Work Green Paper that we would establish a new guarantee of support for all disabled people and people with health conditions claiming out of work benefits who want help to get into or return to work. This is backed up by £1 billion of new funding across the United Kingdom, with the share of funding for devolved governments calculated in the usual way.
The UK government will respect settlements with devolved governments.
Within Great Britain, we will work closely with the Scottish and Welsh Governments to ensure all aspects of our new approach to delivering employment support partner effectively with devolved provision, including but not limited to skills, health and careers as well as Scottish and Welsh Government-funded employment support.
In Northern Ireland, health, skills, careers and all aspects of employment support are transferred matters. We will work closely with the Northern Ireland Executive, including sharing best practice with the Northern Ireland Executive’s Department for Communities about how our reforms to reduce economic inactivity and support disabled people and people with a health condition are working.
Asked by: Lord Weir of Ballyholme (Democratic Unionist Party - Life peer)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many black and white television licences have been issued in each of the past five years.
Answered by Baroness Twycross - Baroness in Waiting (HM Household) (Whip)
The BBC publishes information about the number of licences in force in its Annual Report and Accounts. For the years 2019/2020, 2020/2021, 2021/2022, 2022/2023, and 2023/2024 there has consistently been approximately 4,000 monochrome licences in force.