Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children were living in households (a) in receipt of Universal Credit and (b) subject to deductions in each parliamentary constituency in the most recent month for which data is available; what the (i) total and (ii) average sum of Universal Credit deductions was for households with children in each constituency; and what proportion of those sums was deducted to repay advance payments.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The requested information is provided in the separate spreadsheet and are subject to the following caveats:
1. For low level geography: volumes have been rounded to the nearest 100, total amounts have been rounded to the nearest £1,000 and average amounts have been rounded to the nearest £1. For totals at GB level: volumes have been rounded to the nearest 100,000, total amounts have been rounded to the nearest £1,000,000 and average amount has been rounded to the nearest £1. Proportions have been rounded to the nearest percentage point.
2. The sum of individual low level geographies may not sum to the total figure due to rounding.
3. Deductions include advance repayments, third party deductions and all other deductions, but exclude sanctions and fraud penalties which are reductions of benefit rather than deductions.
4. Children are defined here as being people who are declared as living in the same household as the UC claimant(s) and who are under the age of 20. The number of children may not be equal to the number of dependent children in the household who are eligible for child element for various reasons. This includes children over the age of 16 in non-advanced full-time education, looked-after children and, other young people living in multigenerational households whose parents are not the claimant. Those affected by the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children may also have a larger number of children compared to the number of children entitled to the child element in their household.
5. Figures are provisional and are subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available.
6. The ‘unknown' parliamentary constituency equates to 0.4% of all households and relates to households for which a constituency could not be determined due to incomplete postcode information.
7. Data for August 2023 has been provided in line with the latest available UC Household Statistics.
8. Claim numbers and numbers of children on UC will not match official statistics caseloads due to methodological differences.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate he has made of the number of (a) family and (b) friend carers affected by the changes to work conditionality rules for Universal Credit implemented on 25 October 2023 in (i) 2022-23, (ii) 2023-24 and (iii) 2024-25.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) family and (b) friend carers were subject to regulation 91(2)(e) of the Universal Credit Regulations 2013 in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Transport on disruption to offshore helicopter transport services from (a) Aberdeen and (b) Sumburgh caused by Storm Babet.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The nature of helicopter travel to and from offshore installations is such that all duty holders have well established contingency plans that they activate when weather conditions require the suspension of scheduled flights. As the implementation of such contingency plans are a part of normal offshore operations the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions would have no need to specifically discuss this matter with the Secretary of State for Transport.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what discussions he has had with the Health and Safety Executive on the impact on Storm Babet on the (a) welfare and (b) contracted working hours of offshore oil and gas workers.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
All offshore installation duty holders have management arrangements in place for a) the welfare and b) the contracted working hours for offshore oil and gas workers, which account for the potential impact of weather events. The implementation of these management arrangements is a part of normal offshore operations, and the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions would have no need to specifically discuss this matter with the Health and Safety Executive.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 14 September 2023 to Question 198769 on Universal Credit: Disqualification, how many children were living in households subject to a Universal Credit sanction in the lowest geographical level and in the most recent month for which data is available.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Information on the number of children living in households subject to a Universal Credit sanction is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Claimants are only sanctioned if they fail to meet their agreed requirements or fail to take up or stay in employment without good reason.
When considering whether a sanction is appropriate, a Decision Maker will take all the claimant’s individual circumstances, including any health conditions, caring responsibilities or disabilities and any evidence of good reason, into account before deciding whether a sanction is warranted.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children were living in households subject to Universal Credit sanctions in each Parliamentary constituency for the most recent month for which data are available.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 7 September 2023 to Question 196260 on Universal Credit: Deductions, what the (a) total and (b) average sum of Universal Credit deductions was for households with children; and what proportion of those sums was deducted to repay advance payments in each Parliamentary constituency in the most recent month for which data is available.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The requested information is provided in the separate spreadsheet and are subject to the following caveats:
1. For low level geography: volumes have been rounded to the nearest 100, total amounts have been rounded to the nearest £1,000 and average amounts have been rounded to the nearest £1. For totals at GB level: volumes have been rounded to the nearest 100,000, total amounts have been rounded to the nearest £1,000,000 and average amount has been rounded to the nearest £1. Proportions have been rounded to the nearest percent.
2. The sum of individual low level geographies may not sum to the total figure due to rounding.
3. Deductions include advance repayments, third party deductions and all other deductions, but exclude sanctions and fraud penalties which are reductions of benefit rather than deductions.
4. Children are defined here as being people who are declared as living in the same household as the UC claimant(s) and who are under the age of 20. The number of children may not be equal to the number of dependent children in the household who are eligible for child element for various reasons. This includes children over the age of 16 in non-advanced full-time education, looked-after children and, other young people living in multigenerational households whose parents are not the claimant. Those affected by the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children may also have a larger number of children compared to the number of children entitled to the child element in their household.
5. Figures are provisional and are subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available.
6. The ‘unknown' parliamentary constituency equates to 0.2% of all households and relates to households for which a constituency could not be determined due to incomplete postcode information.
7. Data for May 2023 has been provided in line with the latest available UC Household Statistics.
8. Claim numbers and number of children on UC will not match official statistics caseloads due to methodological differences.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many children were living in households in (a) receipt of Universal Credit and (b) subject to deductions in each Parliamentary constituency in the most recent month for which data is available; how much was the (i) total and (ii) average sum of such deductions in each constituency; and what proportion of those sums was deducted to repay advance payments.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
The requested information is provided in the separate spreadsheet and are subject to the following caveats:
1. For low level geography: volumes have been rounded to the nearest 100, total amounts have been rounded to the nearest £10,000, average amounts have been rounded to the nearest £1 and percentages have been rounded to the nearest percent. For totals at GB level: volumes have been rounded to the nearest 100,000, total amounts have been rounded to the nearest £1,000,000, average amount has been rounded to the nearest £1 and percentages have been rounded to the nearest percent.
2. The sum of individual low level geographies may not sum to the total figure due to rounding.
3. Deductions include advance repayments, third party deductions and all other deductions, but exclude sanctions and fraud penalties which are reductions of benefit rather than deductions.
4. Children are defined here as being people who are declared as living in the same household as the UC claimant(s) and who are under the age of 20. The number of children may not be equal to the number of dependent children in the household who are eligible for child element for various reasons. This includes children over the age of 16 in non-advanced full-time education, looked-after children and, other young people living in multigenerational households whose parents are not the claimant. Those affected by the policy to provide support for a maximum of two children may also have a larger number of children compared to the number of children entitled to the child element in their household.
5. Figures are provisional and are subject to retrospective change as later data becomes available.
6. The ‘unknown' parliamentary constituency equates to 0.2% of all households and relates to households for which a constituency could not be determined due to incomplete postcode information.
7. Data for Universal Credit awards made in May 2023 has been provided in line with the latest available UC Household Statistics.
8. Claim numbers and number of children on UC will not match official statistics caseloads due to methodological differences.
Asked by: Alex Cunningham (Labour - Stockton North)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many (a) improvement and (b) prohibition notices were issued by Health and Safety Executive inspectors to operators of offshore oil and gas installations in each year since 2016-17; and how many of those notices were related to safety maintenance issues.
Answered by Mims Davies - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have issued the following enforcement notices since 2016 – 17:
2016: 34 Improvement Notices of which 18 related to safety maintenance and 2 Prohibition Notices of which 1 related to safety maintenance
2017: 41 Improvement Notices of which 20 related to safety maintenance and 6 Prohibition Notices of which 4 related to safety maintenance
2018: 28 Improvement Notices of which 7 related to safety maintenance and 1Prohibition Notices of which 0 related to safety maintenance
2019: 22 Improvement Notices of which 6 related to safety maintenance and 4 Prohibition Notices of which 1 related to safety maintenance
2020: 21 Improvement Notices of which 12 related to safety maintenance and 2 Prohibition Notices of which 0 related to safety maintenance
2021: 22 Improvement Notices of which 8 related to safety maintenance and 2 Prohibition Notices of which 0 related to safety maintenance
2022: 30 Improvement Notices of which 6 related to safety maintenance and 0 Prohibition Notices
2023: 13 Improvement Notices of which 2 related to safety maintenance and 0 Prohibition Notices