Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of trends in the level of youth employment in Nottinghamshire since 2010.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
There were 64,800 people aged 16-24 in employment across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire in 2010, and 71,000 in 2018.
The number of young people claiming unemployment-related benefits across Nottingham and Nottinghamshire Local Authorities has fallen by 65.8% in the last six years and stands at 3,696 as at February 2019.
And, the overall level of employment across the East Midlands is now 2.343 million, an increase of just under a quarter of a million since 2010.
Across the UK, around 6.0 million (86.4%) 16-24 year olds are in full-time education (FTE) or work.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many claimants awarded personal independence payment under the special rules for terminal illness made an advanced new claim towards the end of their existing award in each of the last five years; and how many of those claimants had motor neurone disease.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will publish the recent advice given by the Deputy Chief Medical Officer on the definition of a terminal illness for the purpose of claiming benefits; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The previous Deputy Chief Medical Officer carried out an informal meeting with a selection of specialist clinicians to discuss their views on the current Special Rules for Terminal Illness process. Being an informal meeting no formal report was produced.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to ensure that construction companies of all sizes provide at least one employee with occupational health awareness training.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
All employers, including construction companies, are already required through existing legislation to ensure employees have appropriate occupational health related training. Employers have a general duty to provide, so far as is reasonably practicable, appropriate information, instruction and training as necessary to ensure the health of their employees. This training must be relevant, proportionate and effective so that employees are aware of the health hazards they face and the measures in place to control the risks arising from them.
This training can be undertaken in several ways, including via an existing national construction industry training framework. The Health and Safety Executive provides further information on training to assist employers in complying with their legal duties: http://www.hse.gov.uk/managing/delivering/do/organising/training.htm.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Government is taking to encourage the uptake of occupational health schemes among employers.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
The Government wants to see employers of all sizes create healthy workplaces where people can thrive. We will consult this year on measures to encourage and support all employers to play their part and to improve access to occupational health.
Advice from an Occupational Health Expert Group is helping shape proposals. We have also commissioned research to better understand the current market supply and delivery structures of OH provision and its operation. Findings are due to be published in 2019.
Tax incentives are currently available to employers to encourage investment in employee health and wellbeing, including relief for employer-funded medical treatment up to £500 where there has been a recommendation from an occupational health professional and the employee has been absent for 28 days.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what estimate she has made of the current shortfall in the number of occupational health professionals.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson - Minister of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)
We have not made an assessment which would specifically address this question. However, we know that the number of specialist occupational health physicians has steadily declined over the past two decades.
A report from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Occupational Safety and Health highlighted the need to address occupational medicine workforce capacity. A 2016 report from the Council for Work and Health also highlighted similar findings.
The Government is working with its Occupational Health Expert Group to shape measures to improve access to high quality occupational health. This includes looking at the occupational health workforce to ensure sufficient expert capacity is available in the future. Health Education England, through its National School of Occupational Health, has also been involved in this work.
We will set out our proposals in a consultation exercise in 2019.
We have also commissioned research to better understand the current market supply and delivery structures of OH provision and its operation. Findings are due to be published in 2019.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what recent estimate she has made of the number of children living in workless households in the East Midlands.
Answered by Alok Sharma - COP26 President (Cabinet Office)
The latest estimate of the number of children living in workless households** in the East Midlands is 99,000 (11.4%). In 2010 there were 131,000 such children; this is a decrease of 25%.
Nationally the number of children living in workless households has fallen by a third and now stands at just under 1.3 million (10.2%).
Notes:
Source: Labour Force Survey from April – June 2018 published by the Office of National Statistics
** Households including at least one person aged 16 to 64
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many eligible jobholders have been automatically enrolled in a pension scheme Since 2012 in Mansfield constituency.
Answered by Guy Opperman - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)
Since 2012, approximately 9,000 eligible jobholders have been automatically enrolled in Mansfield constituency.
Automatic enrolment is a great success story. Over 9.8 million employees have been automatically enrolled into a workplace pension, and more than 1.3 million employers have met their duties as at the end of July 2018.
Nationally in 2012, the percentage of eligible private sector workers participating in a workplace pension hit a low of 42 per cent. This figure has now risen to 81 per cent. This marks a 39 percentage point increase in pension participation of this group since the introduction of Automatic Enrolment.
Young people have embraced pension saving, with 77 per cent of eligible 22 to 29 year olds working in the private sector now enrolled in a workplace pension. For context, only 24 per cent of this group were enrolled into a workplace pension in 2012, before the introduction of Automatic Enrolment. And the proportion of people earning between £10,000 and £20,000 participating in a workplace pension has grown dramatically, from a low of under 20 per cent in 2012 to over 70 per cent today.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 24 May 2018 to Question 145403, how much of that funding spent on Employment Programmes was allocated to each region of England.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We do not hold expenditure analysis on the allocation of Employment Programme spend by each region of England.
Asked by: Ben Bradley (Conservative - Mansfield)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if she will make an estimate of the amount of funding her Department has allocated to support workless households in each of the last five years.
Answered by Kit Malthouse
We do not hold expenditure data on the basis of workless households. However, in 2016/17 DWP spent £575m on Employment Programmes.