Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps the Health and Safety Executive have taken to prevent health and safety hazards on farms employing workers on the Seasonal Worker visa in each of the last five years in (a) Scotland, (b) England and (c) Wales.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety, this includes workplace health and safety risks created in agriculture.
Over the last 5 years, HSE has taken the following steps to address on-farm health and safety hazards and improve the health and safety performance of the industry for the benefit of all farm workers in Scotland, England and Wales, including seasonal workers, by:
HSE remains committed to working with the farming industry to help improve health and safety performance for the benefit of all its workers.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Worker Support Centre's Annual Report 2024, published on 14 February 2025, whether the Health and Safety Executive has plans to commission a review into (a) the use of personal protective equipment and (b) repeated injuries on farms employing seasonal workers.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety, this includes workplace health and safety risks created in agriculture.
HSE can confirm that the Personal Protective Equipment Regulations 1992 were amended in 2022 to bring all workers into scope. The above regulations will be subject to a post implementation review (PIR) in 2027. These regulations already require that suitable personal protective equipment is provided, at no cost, to the worker and that workers are trained in its use. Therefore, HSE is of the view that the regulations are currently fit for purpose and have no plans to review them before the planned PIR. Farms have a legal duty to ensure that they provide appropriate PPE to all workers, including seasonal workers, and that those workers also use the PPE provided.
Under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013, dutyholders such as farmers have a legal duty to report certain work-related injuries to HSE. Where required, HSE can and does investigate individual reports of work-related incidents across all industries, including farming. In addition, HSE also monitors the accident data that it receives under the above regulations, and tailors its subsequent engagement with the industry in the best, most efficient way to drive improvement in onsite health and safety standards. HSE has no plans to commission a specific review of injuries on farms employing seasonal workers.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Health and Safety Executive Inspections of farms employing workers on the Seasonal Worker visa were conducted in each of the last five years in (a) Scotland, (b) England and (c) Wales.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) is Britain’s national regulator for workplace health and safety, this includes workplace health and safety risks created in agriculture.
The table below shows the total number of farm inspections carried out by HSE over the last 5 years in Scotland, England and Wales. HSE’s farm inspection programme over those years focused on health and safety standards on site for all workers. No farm inspection programmes over the last 5 years were focused exclusively on one group of farm workers such as seasonal workers. If during a farm site visit, matters directly affecting a specific group or number of workers on a particular site were identified by the inspector, they would be dealt with accordingly.
Please see the figures for farm inspections conducted in each of the last five years in (a) Scotland, (b) England and (c) Wales:
:
| Number of Farm Inspections* | |||
YEAR** | Scotland | England | Wales | Total |
2019/20 | 143 | 534 | 18 | 695 |
2020/21 | 34 | 174 | 4 | 212 |
2021/22 | 70 | 263 | 59 | 392 |
2022/23 | 105 | 627 | 51 | 783 |
2023/24 | 22 | 424 | 34 | 480 |
2024/25 | 7 | 62 | 7 | 76 |
*defined by the Nature of business: Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) codes |
** years commencing 1st April |
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
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 number of people with multiple sclerosis who were placed into the Universal Credit Limited Capability for Work-Related Activity group due to meeting the descriptor mobilising unaided Activity 1.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The specific information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
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 number of people with multiple sclerosis who were placed into the Employment and Support Allowance Support Group due to meeting the descriptor mobilising unaided Activity 1.
Answered by Stephen Timms - 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: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
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 number of people with Multiple Sclerosis who are in the Universal Credit (a) Limited Capacity for Work-Related Activity group and (b) Limited Capability for Work group.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The specific information requested is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
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 number of people with Multiple Sclerosis who are in the Employment and Support Allowance Support Group due to scoring 15 points on the Support Group Mobilising activity.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The group of Universal Credit and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) customers affected by the most severe health conditions or disabilities are considered to have limited capability for work-related activity (LCWRA). The Work Capability Assessment (WCA) criteria for assessing whether someone has LCWRA is not determined by a point score. To be found to have LCWRA, someone must be assessed as meeting one or more of the LCWRA criteria, which are set out in legislation.
Scoring 15 points against the WCA Limited Capability for Work (LCW) criteria, be that any single WCA activity or in total across the activities, would result in somebody being found to have LCW/being placed in the ESA Work-Related Activity Group.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
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 number of people with Multiple Sclerosis who are in the Universal Credit Limited Capacity for Work-Related Activity group due to scoring 15 points on the LCWRA Mobilising activity.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The group of Universal Credit and Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) customers affected by the most severe health conditions or disabilities are considered to have limited capability for work-related activity (LCWRA). The Work Capability Assessment (WCA) criteria for assessing whether someone has LCWRA is not determined by a point score. To be found to have LCWRA, someone must be assessed as meeting one or more of the LCWRA criteria, which are set out in legislation.
Scoring 15 points against the WCA Limited Capability for Work (LCW) criteria, be that any single WCA activity or in total across the activities, would result in somebody being found to have LCW/being placed in the ESA Work-Related Activity Group.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
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 number of people with Multiple Sclerosis who are in the Employment and Support Allowance (a) Support Group and (b) Work-Related Activity Group.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In May 2024 there were around 19,500 people on ESA whose main condition was multiple sclerosis. Of these, around 300 were in the Work-Related Activity Group and around 18,000 were in the Support Group, with the remainder being in the Assessment Phase or receiving National Insurance credits only, and not assigned to a particular group.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee Central)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many applications for Pension Credit were received between (a) 29 July 2024 and 30 November 2024, (b) 29 July 2023 and 30 November 2023 and (c) 29 July 2022 and 30 November 2022.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Economic Secretary (HM Treasury)
On 28 November we published Pension Credit applications and award statistics. This publication provides application volumes up to 17 November 2024. Pension Credit applications and awards: November 2024 - GOV.UK, which is the nearest available data to the 30 November.
This information is updated quarterly and the next update, which will include end of November data is due around the end of February 2025. This release will cover data up to week commencing 10 February 2024.
Please note, the figures presented are from DWP’s Pension Credit system which has previously been collected for internal departmental operations use only and has not been quality assured to Official Statistics publication standards.