Asked by: Anna Dixon (Labour - Shipley)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will publish an economic impact assessment on the potential impact of the National Insurance exemption for Indian nationals posted temporarily to the UK under the UK–India Free Trade Agreement on (a) wages, (b) employment opportunities and (c) recruitment practices in the UK information technology sector.
Answered by James Murray - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The OBR will certify the impact of the trade deal including the Double Contributions Convention in the usual way at a fiscal event, once the deal is finalised and ratified. The agreement to negotiate a Double Contributions Convention was made in the context of the wider deal, which will bring billions into the economy.
Asked by: Anna Dixon (Labour - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 2 June 2025 to Question 56485 on Children: Maintenance, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of aligning the child maintenance responsibilities of those who receive the limited capability for work and work-related activity element of Universal Credit and people who receive comparable incomes through employment.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The child maintenance calculation is designed to be fair and proportionate and broadly represent an amount that the paying parent would spend on the child as if they were still living with them. The calculation takes the paying parent’s gross income into account – regardless of whether that income comes from earnings or benefits. Where a paying parent earns under £100 per week, or receives certain benefits including Universal Credit, they pay a flat rate of £7 per week. In those few instances where someone is eligible for the flat rate but has other income, that can be captured by means of a variation.
The Department has recently conducted a programme of strategic work to review the child maintenance calculation. The focus of the review is to explore options to update the calculation to reflect modern societal and economic changes, with the aim of making it fair, affordable and responsive to parents’ circumstances, but importantly, to avoid introducing complexities to the system. A consultation on proposed changes is planned for late 2025.
Asked by: Anna Dixon (Labour - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what (a) capital and (b) revenue funding will be allocated for Young Futures Hubs.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Young Futures Hubs will build on the success of existing infrastructure and provision, with the government establishing a number of early adopter hubs, the locations of which will be determined by where they will have the most impact. The multi-year Spending Review set overall resource departmental budgets until 2028/29 and overall capital departmental budgets until 2029/30. Departments are now working to determine allocations and further details will be provided in due course.
Young Futures Hubs will be co-designed using local knowledge to best serve their communities and will serve a core age range of 10-18, but with flexibility to support young people at each end of this age range in line with local needs.
Asked by: Anna Dixon (Labour - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will take steps to extend the Young Futures Programme to include young people up to the age of 25.
Answered by Janet Daby - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Education)
Young Futures Hubs will build on the success of existing infrastructure and provision, with the government establishing a number of early adopter hubs, the locations of which will be determined by where they will have the most impact. The multi-year Spending Review set overall resource departmental budgets until 2028/29 and overall capital departmental budgets until 2029/30. Departments are now working to determine allocations and further details will be provided in due course.
Young Futures Hubs will be co-designed using local knowledge to best serve their communities and will serve a core age range of 10-18, but with flexibility to support young people at each end of this age range in line with local needs.
Asked by: Anna Dixon (Labour - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of PIP claims are fraudulent; how many existing PIP claimants are expected to lose their allowance as a result of proposed changes to limit eligibility to those scoring at least four points on one domain; and what data her Department holds on how PIP claimants are spending their allowance for people who are (a) in work and (b) not in work.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Information on Fraud and Error in the Benefit System, including Personal Independence Payment, is published here.
Information on the impacts changes to PIP have been published here: Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payment Bill publications - Parliamentary Bills - UK Parliament.
We will be making changes so no one currently on PIP will lose PIP as a result of the four-point change. The four point eligibility requirement will be implemented from November 2026 for new claims only, subject to Parliamentary approval.
The number of people currently on PIP who did not score 4 points in one category in their last assessment should not be equated with the number who are likely to not to be awarded the daily living component of PIP in future. Our intention is that changes will start to come into effect from November 2026, subject to parliamentary approval. After that date, people already in receipt of PIP will continue to be treated under the current rules, with only new claimants having the new criterion applied. As a result of behavioural responses to the change, we expect that a higher proportion of new claimants will score 4 points against at least one activity than happens currently.
We are consulting on how best to support those who are affected by the new eligibility changes, including ensuring health and care needs are met. We have also announced a wider review of the PIP assessment to make it fair and fit for purpose, which I am leading. We are bringing together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this. We will provide further details as plans progress
Information on how claimants spend their benefit is published in The Uses of Health and Disability Benefits, and, for a subset in receipt of the Support Group rate of Employment and Support Allowance and its Universal Credit equivalent, in chapter 3.4 of The work aspirations and support needs of claimants in the ESA Support Group and Universal Credit equivalent.
Asked by: Anna Dixon (Labour - Shipley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, (a) which stakeholders he has consulted and (b) what data sources he has used to develop the basis of the adult social care resource formula.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is important that the Adult Social Care Relative Needs Formula accurately reflects the relative need for services to ensure funding is allocated to the places that need it most and to enable all local authorities to focus on improving adult social care outcomes.
The Department commissioned independent academics at the Adult Social Care Research Unit to develop an update to the current Adult Social Care Relative Needs Formula. This update reflects a more up to date assessment of relative adult social care need in England and is being consulted on as part of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Local Government Funding Reform consultation. The Adult Social Care Research Unit’s research report is available at the following link:
https://ascru.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_06_16_Revision-of-ASC-RNF-2024.pdf
Asked by: Anna Dixon (Labour - Shipley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure the assessment framework used for commissioning the adult social care resource formula focuses on outcomes.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
It is important that the Adult Social Care Relative Needs Formula accurately reflects the relative need for services to ensure funding is allocated to the places that need it most and to enable all local authorities to focus on improving adult social care outcomes.
The Department commissioned independent academics at the Adult Social Care Research Unit to develop an update to the current Adult Social Care Relative Needs Formula. This update reflects a more up to date assessment of relative adult social care need in England and is being consulted on as part of the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Local Government Funding Reform consultation. The Adult Social Care Research Unit’s research report is available at the following link:
https://ascru.nihr.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/2025_06_16_Revision-of-ASC-RNF-2024.pdf
Asked by: Anna Dixon (Labour - Shipley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of the number of mental health staff that will be placed in schools; and what assessment he has made of the level of qualification that will be required by those staff members; and how those staff members will be funded.
Answered by Stephen Kinnock - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
We are working closely with local commissioners to deliver mental health support teams in schools in England so they cover 100% of pupils by 2029/30. NHSE have estimated that around 2,400 Education Mental Health Practitioners (EMHP) are placed throughout the 600 current operational Mental Health Support Teams. Actual numbers will vary slightly at a local level, according to need. The average coverage of schools per team can change from year to year and an extensive independent evaluation is due to publish in 2026 that will inform future roll-out.
EMHP undertake a year-long training course to qualify. They can train for a postgraduate or graduate diploma, depending on whether they already have a degree qualification.
Annual National Health Service day-to-day spending will increase by £29 billion in real terms, via a £53 billion cash uplift, by 2028/29, compared to 2023/24. This will take the NHS resource budget to £226 billion by 2028/29, the equivalent to a 3% average annual real terms growth rate over the Spending Review period.
In the Spending Review announcement, we have confirmed that we will fulfil the Government’s commitments to recruit an additional 8,500 mental health staff by the end of the Parliament.
Asked by: Anna Dixon (Labour - Shipley)
Question to the Department for Business and Trade:
To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if he will take steps to encourage businesses to use pin pads that are accessible to people with sight impairments.
Answered by Justin Madders - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Business and Trade)
The government expects people who provide goods, services, and facilities to members of the public, to anticipate the requirements of disabled customers and the adjustments that may have to be made for them, in line with the Equality Act 2010.
In April, the Minister of State for Social Security and Disability and the Economic Secretary to the Treasury jointly wrote to UK Finance, the leading trade association for the UK banking sector, to urge further progress on ensuring touchscreen card terminals remain accessible for blind and partially sighted consumers. As well, the British Standards Institution has developed and published a British Standard that provides guidelines for the adoption of an inclusive approach to the design of products.
Asked by: Anna Dixon (Labour - Shipley)
Question to the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government:
To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if she will make it her policy to extend the time limit on exceptions to council tax premiums for category G properties to cover the full period for which a property is being actively marketed for sale for (a) long-term empty homes, (b) second homes and (c) leasehold retirement properties.
Answered by Jim McMahon - Minister of State (Housing, Communities and Local Government)
The government has published guidance on the implementation of council tax premiums and exceptions to those premiums. This is available gov.uk here. The government does not have any plans to change the exceptions to the council tax premiums.