Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 29 June 2021 to Question 21959 on Natural Gas: Hydrogen, when the Health and Safety Executive’s review of the Gas Safety (Management) Regulations 1996 is due to be completed.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is currently assessing safety evidence provided by industry to inform its review of the Gas Safety (Management) Regulations 1996 (GSMR). HSE expects to put forward proposals for change and associated policy options by the end of 2021, at which time I will consider how any changes to GSMR can support the government’s objectives for safe gas composition standards, decarbonisation and hydrogen blending into the existing gas network.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what plans she has to amend the Gas Safety Management Regulations to allow hydrogen blending within the main grid to levels higher than 0.1 per cent by volume; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive’s (HSE's) review of the Gas Safety (Management) Regulations 1996 (GSMR) is ongoing. The review is considering potential changes in gas quality, and policy options to enable future changes to the gas quality specification (currently set out in Schedule 3 of GSMR) to be made in an efficient way. This will enable safe hydrogen blending and wider safe use of hydrogen in place of natural gas. Following completion of the review, any proposals for change and associated policy options HSE puts forward will be considered.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 16 February 2021 to Question 151764, on Universal Credit, whether that new process covers claimants that are paid every four weeks, in the event that they receive two sets of four weekly payments within a single calendar month.
Answered by Will Quince
No, automated identification will only be for affected claimants receiving monthly earnings in the same assessment period.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what changes she has made to the universal credit system to comply with the Court of Appeal judgement of 22 June 2020 on assessing two wage payments received within a single assessment period.
Answered by Will Quince
The Universal Credit (Earned Income) Amendment Regulations 2020 were laid in October 2020, so for cases affected by this issue, monthly earnings can be reallocated to another assessment period. To support this, we have designed a tool which interacts with the Universal Credit Service to allow the redistribution of earnings where appropriate, with guidance having been issued to staff to ensure that where an issue is identified, the correct remedial action is taken.
Automated identification of affected claimants is expected to be implemented in early 2021. This will allow us to proactively correct Universal Credit awards before they are paid without the claimant needing to raise the issue.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) men and (b) women received national insurance auto credits in each year since 2010; and what the cost was to the public purse of such auto credits.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Autocredits were available from 1983 to 2018. They were only available to men who were aged over the female State Pension age (SPa) but below male SPa. They ceased when the SPa for men and women equalised.
Men received autocredits only for the year in which they reached the female SPa and subsequent full tax years before age 65, protecting their National Insurance (NI) records over the period that a woman of the same age could already have claimed her State Pension.
As autocredits were only available to men, and in accordance with the policy and applicable legislation, no women received them (women were already receiving their State Pension at the time men of the same age were receiving autocredits).
Data for the number of individual men receiving autocredits for the period was not collected and is not readily available.
It is not possible to answer the question on costs. NI credits on their own have no intrinsic value or cost.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 8 September 2020 to Question 82102, what the timeframe is for the Health and Safety Executive to report back on recommendations of changes to the Gas Safety (Management) Regulations 1996.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is continuing the process of reviewing the Gas Safety (Management) Regulations 1996 (GSMR). Before any amendments are proposed HSE must be satisfied that there will be no detrimental impact on health and safety as a result.
Assessment of the evidence supporting a safe change is being undertaken, and further information and clarifications have been sought. This assessment will form the basis of a formal public consultation on future proposals for changes to GSMR. HSE expects to publish the consultation document in summer 2021.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 13 October 2020 to Question 99030 on Department for Work and Pensions: Private Finance Initiative, which Department has responsibility for Health and Safety Laboratory, Buxton PFI.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
When answering written Parliamentary Questions concerning the Department, we do not include information on Executive Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) or Arms-Length bodies unless it is explicitly asked for in the question.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), has responsibility for the two live Private Finance Initiatives (PFI); the Health and Safety Laboratory, Buxton and Redgrave Court, Bootle formally known as the New Merseyside Centre.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 13 October 2020 to Question 99030 on Department for Work and Pensions: Private Finance Initiative, which Department has responsibility for New Merseyside Centre.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
When answering written Parliamentary Questions concerning the Department, we do not include information on Executive Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) or Arms-Length bodies unless it is explicitly asked for in the question.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE), an Executive Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB) of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP), has responsibility for the two live Private Finance Initiatives (PFI); the Health and Safety Laboratory, Buxton and Redgrave Court, Bootle formally known as the New Merseyside Centre.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what live PFI contracts her Department has; and for each of those contracts (a) what service is provided, (b) when the contract became live, (c) what the remaining term of the contract is and (d) what the annual repayments are.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Following a search of our records we have established that the Department does not hold any live PFI contracts.
Asked by: Alan Brown (Scottish National Party - Kilmarnock and Loudoun)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what changes she has made to the qualifying period for support for mortgage interest in response to the covid-19 outbreak; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department has no plans to amend the qualifying period for Support for Mortgage Interest.
Home owners experiencing difficulties with mortgage repayments because of COVID-19 should contact their lender as soon as possible to discuss what support might be available.