Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
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.
| Anxiety | Conduct | Mixed anxiety | Mood | Substance |
Initial clearance award rate | 46 | 55 | 53 | 52 | 72 |
MR change rate | 10 | 4 | 12 | 12 | 16 |
Appeal overturn rate | 41 | x | 45 | 42 | 55 |
Notes:
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
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.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
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.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
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.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
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.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
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.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
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.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
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.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
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.
Asked by: Baroness Coffey (Conservative - Life peer)
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.