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, whether it is her Department's policy that existing PIP claimants of pension age who are subject to a planned award review from November 2026 will be required to score at least four points in one daily living activity in order to maintain their award.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Our intention is for the new eligibility requirement for the daily living component of Personal Independence Payment (PIP)—requiring individuals to score at least four points in a single daily living activity—to apply to new claims and award reviews from November 2026, subject to parliamentary approval. In line with current policy, individuals over State Pension Age are not routinely subject to full award reviews and are therefore not expected to be affected by the proposed changes.
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, whether it is her Department's policy that existing PIP claimants of pension age who request a change of circumstances review from November 2026 are required to score at least four points in one daily living activity in order to (a) maintain and (b) increase their award.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
In keeping with existing policy, people on state pension age are not routinely fully reviewed and will not be affected by these changes. We are considering further how the 4-point minimum requirement will affect claimants over state pension age who report a change of circumstances, and we will provide further information in due course.
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, pursuant to the Answer of 17 March 2025 to Question 37202 on Seasonal workers: Agriculture, how many Health and Safety Executive inspection officials are based in (a) Scotland, (b) England and (c) Wales.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
As the table below shows, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) currently employs 897 full time equivalent (FTE) inspector staff in all grades and roles including trainees, managers and specialists with warrants. There are currently 663 FTE Band 3 and 4 inspectors who undertake the delivery of the operational division workplans. This includes inspections and investigations into reported incidents and concerns and where non-compliance with health and safety legislations is identified, the inspectors take regulatory action in accordance with HSE’s published Enforcement Policy Statement.
Although HSE staff work across England, Scotland and Wales, these figures are based on the office location where the staff are employed.
Job Band | England | Scotland | Wales | Total |
SCS | 9 | 1 | - | 10 |
Band 1 | 28 | 4 | 3 | 35 |
Band 2 | 152 | 26 | 11 | 189 |
Band 3 | 377 | 94 | 42 | 513 |
Band 4 | 117 | 21 | 12 | 150 |
Total | 683 | 146 | 68 | 897 |
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, pursuant to the Answer of 19 March 2025 to Question 37203 on Seasonal workers: Agriculture, how many Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations reports were received by the Health and Safety Executive for (a) agricultural and (b) seasonal agricultural workers in each of the last five years.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) does not require dutyholders submitting reports under the Reporting of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous Occurrences Regulations 2013 (RIDDOR) to specify that the report relates to “seasonal agricultural workers”. Therefore, HSE does not hold specific data on the number of RIDDOR reports submitted for “seasonal agricultural workers” in each of the last five years.
HSE does collect RIDDOR reports on injuries and diseases to agricultural workers. The two tables below show the total number of RIDDOR reports received for “agricultural workers” from 1 April to 31 March over the last 5 years.
Table 1 - Reports of injuries*
Year | Non-reportable | Reportable | All reports |
2020/21 | 40 | 829 | 869 |
2021/22 | 22 | 786 | 808 |
2022/23 | 26 | 778 | 804 |
2023/24 | 27 | 765 | 792 |
2024/25 | 33 | 786 | 819 |
*Table 1 - Injury outcomes include fatal, specified injuries, and over-7-day injuries.
Table 2 - Reports of occupational diseases, exposures to biological agents, and occupational cancers*
Year | Non-reportable | Reportable | All reports |
2020/21 | 3 | 58 | 61 |
2021/22 | 1 | 20 | 21 |
2022/23 | 0 | 16 | 16 |
2023/24 | 0 | 10 | 10 |
2024/25 | 3 | 8 | 11 |
*Table 2 - Reports of specific occupational diseases, includes those caused by an occupational exposure to a biological agent; and cases of occupational cancer.
Notes on the two tables:
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.