Baroness Shawcross-Wolfson

The Senior Civil Service (SCS) performance management framework for the 2026/27 performance year will be published imminently.

Government has started the first two pilots of these taskforces. One that will improve data sharing across the criminal justice system with work taking place between the Ministry of Justice and the Home Office and a second to address violence against women and girls by working to accelerate delivery of support services in communities across the country. Delivery is led by departmental ministers with sponsorship from myself and my ministerial team.

The government is reforming the spending control and accountability framework in order to drive better value for money and enable the public sector to deliver the government’s priorities efficiently. This ultimately means better and faster outcomes for citizens. The reforms will reinforce accountability, enable the central government functions to focus more of their efforts on building capability, and be supported by open and collaborative ways of working. From 1 April, ‘delegated authority limits’ have increased across most of government and duplication in the approvals process has been removed.

Taskforces will be given the authority to exercise unique freedoms, including the freedom to get on with the job with prioritised business case approvals and increased delegated authority limits from the Treasury as appropriate.

I refer the Noble Lady to my answer to HL13762.:

Question:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent on 19 January (HL13276), when the arm's length bodies (ALB) review will be completed; and whether its findings will be published.

Answer:

The review is ongoing. Outcomes will be communicated in due course.

We are in the process of updating the Senior Civil Service (SCS) Performance Management Framework aimed at ensuring performance across the SCS is focused on the Prime Minister’s priorities and that underperformance is held to tougher standards and addressed as soon as it arises.

The Government has established a baseline for the administrative burden of regulation on businesses of £22.4bn a year, and a resulting £5.6bn target. As set out in the technical annex to policy paper ‘A new approach to ensure regulators and regulation support growth’ (21^st October 2025), these estimates apply from the start of April 2025 and reflect all UK government regulation at the time, including since July 2024.

Where gross administrative burdens are added after April 2025, savings will be found in other areas, so the net administrative burden is reduced by £5.6bn by the end of this Parliament.

Government is making progress to reduce the administrative burden of regulation on businesses by 25% by the end of this Parliament.

As set out in the October Regulation Action Plan progress update, we have identified £1.5bn in gross administrative savings through measures like the Planning and Infrastructure Bill which is accelerating the delivery of 1.5m new homes and critical infrastructure, making annual savings of £272m; modernising corporate reporting requirements, making annual savings of £230m, and; providing access to data and speeding up work to operate and repair pipes and cables by establishing the National Underground Asset Register, saving £185m annually.

The Government has published a comprehensive Regulation Action Plan that sets out our plans to reform the regulatory system to unlock growth, boost innovation and reduce burdens on businesses across key sectors.

One of the key commitments in the Action Plan is the target to cut the administrative burden of regulation on business by 25%, or £5.6bn, by the end of the Parliament. This pledge will save businesses time and money and help create a regulatory environment that is targeted, proportionate, transparent and agile enough to support economic growth.

The UK digital verification services trust framework describes rules for providers to follow to show they provide trustworthy digital verification services. The trust framework requires that all services follow accepted standards on accessible service design.

For digital verification services providing identity verification, we know that certain identity checking methods won’t suit some users, such as people whose circumstances make facial recognition difficult to use, which is why the trust framework enables services to employ a wide range of methods for identity proofing, including some which don’t require use of facial biometrics.

Businesses choosing to check users’ identities using digital verification services may set requirements on what identity checking methods they will accept, and where these require facial biometrics that are difficult for a user, they can choose to follow other identity checking routes instead.

These businesses, which may include banks and other financial services, must consider their obligations under wider legislation such as the Equality Act 2010, when considering how they deliver their services.

The Government is delivering a network of 50 Young Futures Hubs by March 2029. This is a cross-government priority, coordinated with the Department for Education and the Department of Health and Social Care.

While local authorities will decide on precise locations based on community needs, we expect co-location to be a key consideration where it improves accessibility and strengthens local support for young people.

Eight early adopters have been announced. The early adopter phase will look at how Young Futures Hubs interact with existing services, including Family Hubs.

Through the department’s Childcare and Early Education Review, we will look at how to improve access to early education and care, making the system simpler for families and delivering a coherent local offer. The Review will focus on improving outcomes for all children, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, and on helping parents participate in the labour market.

Alongside this, the Early Years Funding Consultation is considering how funding is distributed nationally and locally to ensure it remains fair, reflects delivery costs, and supports areas with higher levels of need. We also work closely with local authorities to monitor sufficiency and understand the barriers to delivering funded places.

On workforce, we are expanding funded Early Years Initial Teacher Training places, introducing financial incentives in disadvantaged areas, and will be consulting on routes and professional status to support a strong, sustainable profession.

Through the department’s Childcare and Early Education Review, we will look at how to improve access to early education and care, making the system simpler for families and delivering a coherent local offer. The Review will focus on improving outcomes for all children, including those from disadvantaged backgrounds, and on helping parents participate in the labour market.

Alongside this, the Early Years Funding Consultation is considering how funding is distributed nationally and locally to ensure it remains fair, reflects delivery costs, and supports areas with higher levels of need. We also work closely with local authorities to monitor sufficiency and understand the barriers to delivering funded places.

On workforce, we are expanding funded Early Years Initial Teacher Training places, introducing financial incentives in disadvantaged areas, and will be consulting on routes and professional status to support a strong, sustainable profession.

Experts at Hand will be delivered through a blend of existing specialist capacity and new staff brought in over time, ensuring the expertise available grows sustainably as the offer develops.

We recently announced £26 million investment to train at least 200 educational psychologists per year, starting their training in 2026 and 2027, followed by further investment from 2028 to train even larger cohorts, subject to a future spending review. This builds on £31 million already being invested since 2023 to train around 200 educational psychologists per year.

The educational psychology doctorate is a three-year course and those who began their training in 2023 will graduate and enter the workforce in 2026/27. Together, these investments will result in approximately 200 trained educational psychologists graduating each year, in 2026/27, 2027/28, 2028/29, and 2029/30 respectively.

We also announced an investment of over £15 million in speech and language therapists (SaLTs). This is to upskill more SaLT support workers and to establish new SaLT advanced practitioners to ensure more therapists and support workers are working with education settings to support additional children and young people. We will also promote the Level 6 SaLT degree apprenticeship to boost the pipeline.

In every year of this Parliament, core funding for schools and special educational needs and disabilities is expected to increase, subject to future spending reviews. The government is committed to prioritising early intervention and is making a major increase in investment, with £4 billion over the three years of the Spending Review. This will reverse the trend of late intervention and escalation in needs.

Within this total, the Inclusive Mainstream Fund will provide over £500 million per financial year, over three years, to schools, colleges and early years settings to develop and embed improved inclusion practice. On Wednesday 25 March, the department published methodology documents explaining how funding will be allocated for the Inclusive Mainstream Fund. Details on the funding for schools and mainstream 16-19 provision are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inclusive-mainstream-fund-2026-to-2027. Details on the Inclusive Early Years Fund are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/inclusive-early-years-fund-2026-to-2027. Funding from 2029 to 2030 onwards is subject to future spending reviews.

Also on 25 March, we announced further details on the allocation of £860 million of high needs capital funding as part of the landmark £3.7 billion announced to deliver 60,000 more specialist places. This funding will drive a transformative expansion of inclusion bases across the country, as well as adaptations to improve the inclusivity and accessibility of mainstream settings as well as supporting special school place creation where needed.

The £4 billion in funding over the spending review period (2026/27, 2027/28 and 2028/29) is newly allocated funding from existing departmental budgets. This investment is additional to the core funding allocations for 2026/27 for early years, schools and post-16 funding that have already been announced.

The department confirmed an additional £3.5 billion of new funding for the special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) system in 2028/29, to support reforms to improve outcomes and experiences for children, young people and their families, as outlined in ‘SEND reform: putting children and young people first’.

The government recognises the importance of ensuring that people have the skills, knowledge and support necessary to manage their finances effectively and offers a range of initiatives to help individuals prepare ahead of and during retirement.

Adults in England can access funded Essential Skills provision, including numeracy courses, to help them develop practical maths skills for everyday life, including budgeting and managing household finances.

For those receiving benefits, work coaches can refer customers with numeracy skills gaps to appropriate training. In addition, Midlife MOTs delivered in Jobcentres help people aged over 50 on Universal Credit review their finances, skills and health, and signpost them to suitable support. A digital Midlife MOT is also available to everyone.

The government also supports financial capability through the Money and Pensions Service. Its MoneyHelper service provides free and impartial money and pensions guidance, budgeting tools and calculators, while Pension Wise offers free guidance appointments to people aged 50 and over to help them understand their pension options and make informed decisions about retirement.

The Department for Work and Pensions has published management information on the number of claimants referred to and who attended the Jobcentre Plus Midlife MoT group sessions since the launch of the policy in January 2023 to June 2025. See “Jobcentre Plus Midlife MOT Group Sessions, January 2023 to June 2025”. Table 1 below provides a yearly breakdown of these figures. Providing data beyond June 2025 would exceed the cost limits in answering Parliamentary Questions.

Table 1 – Number of referrals and attendees to JCP Midlife MoT group sessions

Table 2 below shows an age breakdown of the volumes of individuals referred to and who attended a JCP Midlife MOT group session during January 2023 to June 2025. Providing data beyond June 2025 and by individual year would exceed the cost limits in answering Parliamentary Questions.

Table 2 Age group breakdown of referrals and starts to JCP Midlife MoT group sessions, January 2023 to June 25

The DWP Midlife MOT website and the JCP Midlife MOT group sessions cover similar topics but are not directly comparable in terms of content. Figures for the two policies are as follows. From January 2024 to June 2025 there have been 85,142 individuals referred to and 64,105 individuals who have attended a Jobcentre Plus Midlife MoT group session.

Figures for the number of visitors to the DWP Midlife MoT website have been published as part of the evaluation of the DWP Midlife MoT website, see “Evaluation evidence from policies aimed at claimants aged 50 plus”. This report provides figures from Nov 2023 to March 2026. During this period the website was accessed by users 59,968 times by a total of 38,554 individuals. The evaluation did not collect any data on whether visits to the DWP Midlife MOT website influenced users’ behaviour. Providing further data on the JCP Midlife MoT group sessions and the DWP Midlife MoT website would exceed the costs limits for answering Parliamentary Questions.

DWP has published an evaluation of the Private Sector Midlife MOT scheme. See “Private Sector Midlife MOT Pilots qualitative research interim findings”. Low employer and participant uptake resulted in the pilots concluding early.

The Department for Work and Pensions has published management information on the number of claimants referred to and who attended the Jobcentre Plus Midlife MoT group sessions since the launch of the policy in January 2023 to June 2025. See “Jobcentre Plus Midlife MOT Group Sessions, January 2023 to June 2025”. Table 1 below provides a yearly breakdown of these figures. Providing data beyond June 2025 would exceed the cost limits in answering Parliamentary Questions.

Table 1 – Number of referrals and attendees to JCP Midlife MoT group sessions

Table 2 below shows an age breakdown of the volumes of individuals referred to and who attended a JCP Midlife MOT group session during January 2023 to June 2025. Providing data beyond June 2025 and by individual year would exceed the cost limits in answering Parliamentary Questions.

Table 2 Age group breakdown of referrals and starts to JCP Midlife MoT group sessions, January 2023 to June 25

The DWP Midlife MOT website and the JCP Midlife MOT group sessions cover similar topics but are not directly comparable in terms of content. Figures for the two policies are as follows. From January 2024 to June 2025 there have been 85,142 individuals referred to and 64,105 individuals who have attended a Jobcentre Plus Midlife MoT group session.

Figures for the number of visitors to the DWP Midlife MoT website have been published as part of the evaluation of the DWP Midlife MoT website, see “Evaluation evidence from policies aimed at claimants aged 50 plus”. This report provides figures from Nov 2023 to March 2026. During this period the website was accessed by users 59,968 times by a total of 38,554 individuals. The evaluation did not collect any data on whether visits to the DWP Midlife MOT website influenced users’ behaviour. Providing further data on the JCP Midlife MoT group sessions and the DWP Midlife MoT website would exceed the costs limits for answering Parliamentary Questions.

DWP has published an evaluation of the Private Sector Midlife MOT scheme. See “Private Sector Midlife MOT Pilots qualitative research interim findings”. Low employer and participant uptake resulted in the pilots concluding early.

The Department for Work and Pensions has published management information on the number of claimants referred to and who attended the Jobcentre Plus Midlife MoT group sessions since the launch of the policy in January 2023 to June 2025. See “Jobcentre Plus Midlife MOT Group Sessions, January 2023 to June 2025”. Table 1 below provides a yearly breakdown of these figures. Providing data beyond June 2025 would exceed the cost limits in answering Parliamentary Questions.

Table 1 – Number of referrals and attendees to JCP Midlife MoT group sessions

Table 2 below shows an age breakdown of the volumes of individuals referred to and who attended a JCP Midlife MOT group session during January 2023 to June 2025. Providing data beyond June 2025 and by individual year would exceed the cost limits in answering Parliamentary Questions.

Table 2 Age group breakdown of referrals and starts to JCP Midlife MoT group sessions, January 2023 to June 25

The DWP Midlife MOT website and the JCP Midlife MOT group sessions cover similar topics but are not directly comparable in terms of content. Figures for the two policies are as follows. From January 2024 to June 2025 there have been 85,142 individuals referred to and 64,105 individuals who have attended a Jobcentre Plus Midlife MoT group session.

Figures for the number of visitors to the DWP Midlife MoT website have been published as part of the evaluation of the DWP Midlife MoT website, see “Evaluation evidence from policies aimed at claimants aged 50 plus”. This report provides figures from Nov 2023 to March 2026. During this period the website was accessed by users 59,968 times by a total of 38,554 individuals. The evaluation did not collect any data on whether visits to the DWP Midlife MOT website influenced users’ behaviour. Providing further data on the JCP Midlife MoT group sessions and the DWP Midlife MoT website would exceed the costs limits for answering Parliamentary Questions.

DWP has published an evaluation of the Private Sector Midlife MOT scheme. See “Private Sector Midlife MOT Pilots qualitative research interim findings”. Low employer and participant uptake resulted in the pilots concluding early.

The Department for Work and Pensions has published management information on the number of claimants referred to and who attended the Jobcentre Plus Midlife MoT group sessions since the launch of the policy in January 2023 to June 2025. See “Jobcentre Plus Midlife MOT Group Sessions, January 2023 to June 2025”. Table 1 below provides a yearly breakdown of these figures. Providing data beyond June 2025 would exceed the cost limits in answering Parliamentary Questions.

Table 1 – Number of referrals and attendees to JCP Midlife MoT group sessions

Table 2 below shows an age breakdown of the volumes of individuals referred to and who attended a JCP Midlife MOT group session during January 2023 to June 2025. Providing data beyond June 2025 and by individual year would exceed the cost limits in answering Parliamentary Questions.

Table 2 Age group breakdown of referrals and starts to JCP Midlife MoT group sessions, January 2023 to June 25

The DWP Midlife MOT website and the JCP Midlife MOT group sessions cover similar topics but are not directly comparable in terms of content. Figures for the two policies are as follows. From January 2024 to June 2025 there have been 85,142 individuals referred to and 64,105 individuals who have attended a Jobcentre Plus Midlife MoT group session.

Figures for the number of visitors to the DWP Midlife MoT website have been published as part of the evaluation of the DWP Midlife MoT website, see “Evaluation evidence from policies aimed at claimants aged 50 plus”. This report provides figures from Nov 2023 to March 2026. During this period the website was accessed by users 59,968 times by a total of 38,554 individuals. The evaluation did not collect any data on whether visits to the DWP Midlife MOT website influenced users’ behaviour. Providing further data on the JCP Midlife MoT group sessions and the DWP Midlife MoT website would exceed the costs limits for answering Parliamentary Questions.

DWP has published an evaluation of the Private Sector Midlife MOT scheme. See “Private Sector Midlife MOT Pilots qualitative research interim findings”. Low employer and participant uptake resulted in the pilots concluding early.