Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what was the success rate for applications for Personal Independence Payment following (1) initial application, (2) mandatory reconsideration, and (3) tribunal appeal, for individuals with (a) mixed anxiety and depressive disorders, (b) mood disorders, (c) anxiety disorder, (d) substance use disorder, and (e) conduct disorder, between 1 April 2024 and 31 March 2026.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The requested information for new claims under normal rules in areas under DWP policy ownership are included below. This data is for initial decisions between 1 April 2024 and 31 December 2025, the most recent date for mandatory reconsiderations and appeals data.

Table 1: award rates (%) for initial decision, mandatory reconsideration (MR), and appeal by condition subgroup.

Notes:

• There were insufficient appeals for claimants with conduct disorder for an appeal overturn rate to be meaningful.
• The rate for MRs is the percentage of cleared MRs which resulted in an award being changed.
• The overturn rate for appeals is the number of appeals that were overturned at a tribunal as a percentage of appeals which were cleared or lapsed (decision changed by DWP without going to a tribunal).
• The claimants’ primary conditions at the time of initial decision were used to categorise these percentages. Many PIP claimants have additional conditions which factor into the decisions made and claimants who have the listed conditions as supplementary conditions will not be included in the table.
• Percentages have been rounded to the nearest percentage point.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what is the (1) remuneration per day, and (2) total remuneration since appointment, of the (a) non-ministerial co-chairs, and (b) members, of the steering group of the Timms Review of Personal Independence Payment.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Information on the day rate is already available. Members of the Timms Review steering group will be paid at a rate of £300 a day, with an expected time commitment of up to 5 days a month. The Review’s two external co-chairs, who were appointed in October 2025, are paid at a rate of £400 a day, with the same expected time commitment.

The rates per month may vary.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government how the baseline and measures for the proposed assessment of growth by every postcode in the UK will be established.

Answered by Lord Pitt-Watson - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government's ambition is to support good growth across all parts of the United Kingdom. As set out in the Prime Minister's recent Machinery of Government Statement, No10 North will be responsible for driving good growth through devolution and working in close partnership with local leaders, businesses, and communities to strengthen place-based growth

The Government is considering how best to assess progress against its growth ambitions and will provide further details as policy development progresses.

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government how residents in Northern Ireland will receive the VAT cut on electricity bills announced by the Prime Minister on 21 July.

Answered by Lord Pitt-Watson - Parliamentary Secretary (HM Treasury)

The Government has announced a cut in VAT on electricity bills to give millions of households breathing space on the cost of living. These changes to VAT apply and are funded for this winter (from 1 October 2026 to 31 March 2027).

The Windsor Framework provides the legal basis and mechanism for changes to VAT on goods in Northern Ireland, and the Government has begun discussions about with the European Union on applying this mechanism for these changes.

To ensure that households in Northern Ireland receive the same support as quickly as the rest of the UK, the Northern Ireland Executive will receive comparable funding to enable it to support households in Northern Ireland with the cost of living this winter.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to publish the independent review into allegations regarding risk of blackouts during heatwaves make by whistle-blowers from the National Energy System Operator in July.

Answered by Baroness Curran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government takes this matter very seriously and welcomes both the independent review into whistleblowing allegations and the separate review into grid performance during the recent period of extreme heat. Transparency will be a central principle throughout.

The Minister for Energy wrote to the Chair of NESO urging the key findings of the independent report to be published once the investigation has concluded.

Separately, NESO's post-event analysis, and Ofgem's conclusions, will be published. This will be subject to limited redactions required to protect the anonymity of individual staff members, commercially sensitive information, national security matters, or other legitimate confidentiality considerations.

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask His Majesty's Government which projects from the International Climate Finance fund will now receive a loan rather than a grant; and if the loans are not in the recipient country’s own currency, whether they will absorb the currency exchange rate risk for those loans.

Answered by Baroness Curran - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

The Government is switching £400 million of grant funding set aside for future international climate finance projects into loans, which could include projects such as the Tropical Forests Forever Facility. This provides more flexible ways to meet the Government’s international climate objectives.

The terms of any loan including the currency denomination and the treatment of any associated exchange rate risk, will depend on the final design of individual investments and will be considered in line with normal value for money and Official Development Assistance requirements.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the cost of changing the minimum Personal Independence Payment award to four years.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

In the Autumn Statement 2025 the then Chancellor announced three measures which will make operational improvements to health assessments to ensure people receive the right health or disability benefit, deal with the reassessment backlog for the Work Capability Assessment (WCA) and ensure the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) system is sustainable: increasing face to face assessments across health and disability benefits, increasing WCA reassessment capacity and changing the frequency of PIP award reviews (AR). Together, this package of measures were scored by the OBR at the last Budget as set to deliver around £2 billion in savings over the scorecard.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many people work full time equivalent for the Independent Case Examiner; and what is its overall budget cost.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Currently 93.88 full time equivalents work for the Independent Case Examiner’s Office.

The overall costs for the 25/26 financial year were £4.8m.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, following the announcement by the Prime Minister's Office of 22 July, Cheaper travel for millions with a third off fares, whether any part of the UK's contribution to the Green Climate Fund will be provided in the form of loans rather than grants; if so, how much funding is affected; and what the terms of the loans will be.

Answered by Lord Wood of Anfield - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) uses a combination of grants and other instruments, including loans, as most appropriate to deliver the intended outcomes and provide the best value for money. No existing FCDO International Climate Finance programmes have been switched from grants to loans linked with the recent announcement of £2 bus fares.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask His Majesty's Government, following the announcement by the Prime Minister's Office of 22 July, Cheaper travel for millions with a third off fares, whether funding allocated to the Congo Basin Pledge will be provided in the form of loans rather than grants; if so, how much funding is affected; and what the terms of the loans will be.

Answered by Lord Wood of Anfield - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) uses a combination of grants and other instruments, including loans, as most appropriate to deliver the intended outcomes and provide the best value for money. No existing FCDO International Climate Finance programmes have been switched from grants to loans linked with the recent announcement of £2 bus fares.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government which parts of the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Act 2025 are not yet commenced, and when each of those parts will be commenced.

Answered by Baroness Sherlock - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Public Authorities (Fraud, Error, and Recovery) Act 2025 achieved Royal Assent on Tuesday 2 December 2025. The Act will help to address the significant challenge of public sector fraud and error, which costs the taxpayer billions of pounds annually.

The Act will modernise our legislative framework, to help identify, prevent, and deter fraud and to enable better recovery of debt owed to the taxpayer. It will also further help us to protect claimants by stopping errors earlier and therefore minimise debts. It is expected to deliver benefits to the taxpayer of £2.1 billion over the next five years, as certified by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).

The outstanding measure in Part 1 of the Act (Section 73) would set up the enforcement activities in Part 1 of the Act as an arm's length body. As Ministers explained during the Act's passage, establishing an arm’s-length body for a small enforcement team would not currently represent value for money. A decision whether to pursue the transfer of functions under Section 73 will be made at a later date, once a review of how effectively the powers are used, has been carried out. Therefore, commencement of Section 73 is being kept under review.

The remaining measures within Part 2 of the Act, which are Information Gathering and Search and Seizure, will be introduced over a number of years, coming into force at different points between the 2026–27 and 2028–29 reporting years. Implementation and digital change are already ongoing.

Found: Minutes of the 7th Meeting, held at 10.00am on Wednesday 22 July 2026 Present: Lord Ashcombe Baroness Coffey

Found: Baroness Coffey (Committee member until 22 June 2026) No relevant interests to declare.