Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the Health and Safety Executive's timeline is for further consideration of the proposed mandatory classification and labelling for lithium (a) carbonate, (b) chloride and (c) hydroxide under article 37A of the GB Classification, Labelling and Packaging Regulation.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Health and Safety Executive's (HSE) timeline for further consideration of the proposed GB mandatory classification and labelling of substances is set out in Article 37A of the GB Classification, Labelling and Packaging Regulation (GB CLP).
Under Article 37A, HSE, as the GB CLP Agency, may submit a proposal for a new or revised GB mandatory classification and labelling requirement when there is evidence of new scientific data or information that may lead to a new or revised mandatory classification and labelling for a priority hazard class, such as carcinogenicity, mutagenicity or reproductive toxicity.
There is no statutory time limit on HSE to prepare and submit a proposal. HSE regulatory and scientific specialists will investigate the evidence and new scientific data made available and, if necessary, seek additional information or consult other departments or agencies.
HSE’s specialists have conducted a significant amount of work considering the classification of these lithium substances, including the publication of the Agency Technical Report in August 2022 and the Agency Opinion in August 2023. Further consideration of the proposed GB mandatory classification and labelling for lithium (a) carbonate, (b) chloride and (c) hydroxide is underway. HSE will continue to engage with stakeholders during this process.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has had discussions with her EU counterparts on the opinion on lithium (a) carbonate, (b) chloride and (c) hydroxide adopted by the European Chemicals Agency Committee for Risk Assessment.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and other Ministers have had no discussions with EU counterparts on the opinion on lithium (a) carbonate, (b) chloride and (c) hydroxide adopted by the European Chemicals Agency Committee for Risk Assessment.
While the UK continues to recognise the importance of the European Union (EU) as an important market for UK business, following EU Exit the UK must reach its own independent decisions regarding the classification and labelling of hazardous chemicals.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of not including military compensation as an income on means-tested benefit applications.
Answered by Mims Davies - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The department has had a number of discussions with stakeholders about the treatment of armed forces compensation payments in the benefit system and has further such discussions planned. There are already special rules in place for the treatment of these payments.
Those receiving War Disablement Pensions and guaranteed income payments made under the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme do not have their Universal Credit reduced to take account of this income. Pension Credit includes a weekly £10 disregard for War Pension payments. There are no plans to change these arrangements.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment his Department's Disability Unit has made of the (a) adequacy of availability of and (b) strength of demand for courses in British Sign Language.
Answered by Tom Pursglove - Minister of State (Minister for Legal Migration and Delivery)
The Disability Unit does not keep statistics on the adequacy of availability, or strength of demand, for courses in British Sign Language, as this would be a matter for the Department for Education.
A British Sign Language (BSL) Advisory Board has been established to help advise the Government on the implementation of the British Sign Language Act 2022. This Act legally recognises BSL as a language of England, Wales and Scotland. It requires government departments to report on how they are ensuring accessibility of their communications through the use of BSL. The BSL Advisory Board is a new expert committee which will advise the Government on the implementation of the BSL Act and other matters important to BSL signers. Amongst other things, the Board will advise on how to increase the numbers of qualified and registered BSL interpreters.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of his Department’s capacity to respond to correspondence on voluntary National Insurance contributions in time for the deadline of 31 July 2023.
Answered by Laura Trott - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The DWP Futures Pension Centre has experienced unprecedented levels of contact from customers considering whether to pay voluntary National Insurance Contributions (VNICS) before the deadline. To ensure customers have the time and information to make an informed decision, HMRC announced it will extend the deadline to pay these contributions until 5 April 2025.
DWP have redeployed additional resources and continue to review options to meet current demand and improve service.
Furthermore, HMRC and the DWP are taking the opportunity through the extension period to make improvements to the digital service, with the intention that the majority of customers should be able to complete the process online. Further announcements will follow in due course.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of enabling personal independent payment claimants who are appealing a decision to retain the use of their Motability vehicle until the conclusion of a Tribunal hearing.
Answered by Justin Tomlinson
To be eligible for the Motability Scheme, claimants must be in receipt of a qualifying benefit. To keep a Motability car, pending an appeal being heard, DWP would need to continue to pay PIP even though a decision had been made that there was no entitlement. Should the appeal not succeed, this approach would also have created a large non-recoverable overpayment - a considerable cost to the taxpayer.
However, Motability Scheme customers who leave the Scheme due to losing eligibility following a PIP award review now receive a £1,000 Stopped Allowance Payment from Motability providing the vehicle is returned within 8 weeks and in good condition.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) changing its guidance to allow electronic recordings of employment support allowance and personal independence payment assessments and (b) providing medical assessors with approved equipment to record those assessments; and if she will make a statement.
Answered by Sarah Newton
Employment and Support Allowance claimants are able to record their assessments provided they abide by reasonable conditions designed to protect the healthcare professional and the integrity of the process. They must provide a complete and accurate copy of the recording at the end of the consultation. In addition claimants can request in advance that their assessment is recorded and the assessment provider will provide the equipment.
Personal Independence Payment claimants who wish to record their assessments can do so within existing guidelines. We are currently exploring options around the provision of recording equipment for Assessment Providers.
The Department has set standards for the recordings to make sure that the system is fair and accurately reflects the assessment
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps he is taking to improve the child maintenance system to ensure payments due are received.
Answered by Caroline Nokes
The Child Maintenance System offers choice to all parents, so that those who can collaborate and manage their maintenance arrangements themselves are helped to do so through Direct Pay and those who cannot, have access to the statutory service through the Collect and Pay service. In circumstances where on-going maintenance arrangements break down we work with parents to re-establish payments in order to get money to children quicker.
To ensure parents fulfil their financial responsibilities towards their children we have at our disposal a range of strong enforcement powers which we are continually reviewing and looking to improve. We are currently reviewing our arrears and compliance strategy, and will undertake a public consultation on a proposed new strategy in 2017.
Asked by: Derek Thomas (Conservative - St Ives)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will take steps to ensure that every young person covered by the youth obligation receives appropriate financial advice, education and support for the first six months as part of their preparation for work.
Answered by Priti Patel
From April 2017, we will be introducing the new Youth Obligation for Universal Credit claimants aged 18-21 who we expect to look for work. This new programme of support will help young people develop skills and experience to get on in work.
The first three weeks of this will be a Work Coach led Intensive Activity Period (IAP), where young people on the Youth Obligation will complete a set curriculum of activity designed to help establish them as effective full time job-seekers straight away and support them into work as soon as possible.
Once the claimant has completed the curriculum they will continue to see a dedicated IAP Work Coach who will work with them, continuously reviewing what was achieved during the intensive start-up period.
We will be conducting a stakeholder engagement exercise to help inform the design of the Youth Obligation and will be inviting stakeholders with an interest in the provision of financial advice.
We will set out our policy design for the Youth Obligation in due course.