Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:

To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the Online Safety Act 2023 on (a) small websites, (b) online services, (c) personal blogs and (d) community-run platforms; and whether he is taking steps to prevent (i) the closure of safe online spaces and (ii) blocking of UK users by overseas services, in the context of the implementation of the Online Safety Act 2023.

Answered by Feryal Clark - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)

Under the Online Safety Act, in-scope user-to-user and search services must assess for risks of illegal content and harm to children. Ofcom is the independent regulator for this regime. It sets out what steps small low-risk providers need to take to fulfil their duties following their risk assessment. When implementing these duties, Ofcom is legally required to ensure burdens on providers are proportionate to their risk factors, size, and capacity. Ofcom recently launched an online digital toolkit, aimed at helping smaller services with compliance (https://www.ofcom.org.uk/online-safety/illegal-and-harmful-content/ofcom-launches-digital-safety-toolkit-for-online-services/).

Question to the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero:

To ask the Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero, what steps he is taking to support the rollout of enhanced operational communications enabled by dedicated radio spectrum access for the UK's energy distribution and transmission networks.

Answered by Michael Shanks - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Energy Security and Net Zero)

Ofcom is responsible for the management of spectrum in the UK, including allocating spectrum. Officials are working with those in in the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology and with regulators to help establish the evidence base for the future telecommunications requirements of the energy, water and transport sectors.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps her Department is taking to support PIP claimants into work.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

We announced in the Pathways to Work Green Paper that we would establish a new guarantee of support, backed up by £1 billion of new funding. We want this guarantee to have a particular focus on early support, by offering everyone who claims UC and has a work-limiting health condition or who has recently been in receipt of PIP, with a support conversation. This would be focused on their goals and the help they need to achieve them.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she plans to take to (a) reform (i) employment support and (ii) disability services and (b) support more people into work.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

We announced in the Pathways to Work Green Paper that we would establish a new guarantee of support for all disabled people and people with health conditions claiming out of work benefits who want help to get into or return to work, backed up by £1 billion of new funding.

As the Green Paper notes, we are keen to engage widely on the design of this guarantee and the components needed to deliver it. To get this right, we will be seeking input from a wide range of stakeholders including devolved governments, local health systems, local government and Mayoral Strategic Authorities, private and voluntary sector providers, employers and potential users. We will confirm further details in due course after we have completed our consultation process.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that changes to (a) Universal Credit taper rates and (b) other benefits (i) encourage more people into work and (ii) support people in work.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

As the Chancellor has set out, this Government is reforming the social security system to support people into work, while protecting people who will never be able to – making the system sustainable so that it is there to help those of us that need it now and long into the future.

These changes come on top of our Get Britain Working White Paper which set out the biggest reforms to employment support for a generation, and the increase in the Universal Credit work allowance to £684 per month for those without housing costs or £411 per month for those with housing costs.

In addition, Universal Credit withdraws financial support at a steady rate allowing those on low incomes to keep more of what they earn. It does this by applying a single taper rate of 55% to net earnings before reducing the amount of Universal Credit someone is eligible for. This means claimants still benefit from their income as 45 pence in every pound earned would be kept. In some cases, claimants may also benefit from a work allowance, which is the amount someone can earn before the 55% taper is applied to their net earnings.

These policies are kept under regular review to ensure they continue to make work pay and provide the correct incentives to allow those receiving Universal Credit to move into and progress in work.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to improve the PIP assessment process for (a) all claimants and (b) claimants with fluctuating conditions.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

It is important that all people claiming Personal Independence Payment (PIP) are able to access our services and that they do not face obstacles in applying and communicating with the Department and its providers.

In the Green Paper Pathways to Work: Reforming Benefits and Support to Get Britain Working published on 18 March we outline plans to improve the experience for people who use the health and disability benefits system, including exploring ways to use evidence from eligibility for other services to reduce the need for some people with very severe conditions to undergo a full PIP functional assessment, digitalising the transfer of information from the NHS (with consent) to speed up the process of assessment, and look at recording assessments as standard to increase trust in the process.

We also announced plans to launch a process to review the PIP assessment. We will bring together a range of experts, stakeholders and people with lived experience to consider how best to do this and to start the process as part of preparing for a review. We will provide further details as plans progress.

The Health Transformation Programme is also transforming the entire PIP service, including introducing the option to apply and track applications online. The transformed service will improve how we gather health information, and tailor the process to the customer’s needs and circumstances, offering a better customer experience and improving trust in our services and decisions.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to provide personalised support to jobseekers.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

We are ending the one-size-fits-all approach by reforming both the welfare and employment support systems to Get Britain Working, opening-up employment opportunities in a fair and more sustainable way to boost economic growth.

We announced in the Pathways to Work Green Paper that we would establish a new guarantee of personalised support for all disabled people and people with health conditions claiming out of work benefits who want help to get into or return to work, backed up by £1 billion of new funding.

This is alongside our Connect to Work and WorkWell programmes that provide support to disabled people, those with health conditions, and those with complex barriers to employment.

Our new jobs and careers service will help more people into work and to progress in their careers with an enhanced digital offer and self-serve options whilst our Youth Guarantee will ensure that all young people aged 18-21 in England have access to quality training opportunities, apprenticeships, or employment support. Through our local Get Britain Working plans we are asking local government and Jobcentre Plus leaders to work collaboratively to join up the local work, health, and skills provision and tailor this to local needs because places, like people, need tailored support.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to ensure that people that are unable to work due to (a) long-term illness, (b) disability and (c) other circumstances are adequately supported following her planned reforms to the welfare system.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The social security system will always be there for those who can’t work. As part of making changes to the payment rates in Universal Credit, we will ensure that those with the most severe, lifelong conditions who will never be able to work have their incomes protected.

Twinned with this, as we set out in the Pathways to Work, our ambition is to guarantee personalised employment support to anyone claiming out of work benefits (UC and contributory) with a health condition or disability who wants to work but is currently outside the labour market. We propose that this guarantee will have a particular focus on early support, by offering everyone who claims out of work benefits and has a work-limiting health condition or disability, or who has recently been in receipt of PIP, with a support conversation. The support conversation will help identify the best next steps, including a range of personalised and more intensive support for anyone who wants it. We want our offer to be flexible, personalised and built on the evidence.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of her Department's proposed welfare reforms on levels of economic inactivity.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

No estimate has yet been made.

As announced in the Green Paper, we will build towards a guarantee of personalised employment, health and skills support for anyone on out of work benefits with a work-limiting health condition or disability who wants it. Catalysed by an additional £1 billion a year by 2029/2030, this will improve returns to work and prevent economic inactivity, as part of rebalancing spending towards work over welfare.

A further programme of analysis to support development of the proposals in the Green Paper will be developed and undertaken in the coming months.

As stated in the Office for Budget Responsibility’s Economic and Fiscal Outlook, OBR plan to work with the Treasury and DWP to further scrutinise both the direct and indirect effects of these welfare and employment support policies ahead of their next forecast, alongside the effects of any further measures from the Green Paper that have been sufficiently developed.

Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether he is taking steps to introduce a closed season for hare shooting.

Answered by Mary Creagh - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

This is a devolved matter and the information provided therefore relates to England only, with the potential for relevant policy to extend and apply to Wales.

While the Government has no immediate plan to introduce a close season for hares in England, the policy remains under consideration as part of the Government’s plans to introduce the most ambitious programme for animal welfare in a generation.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what discussions he has had with his international counterparts on promoting education that fosters respect between different faiths and genders.

Answered by Catherine West - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The UK champions the right to freedom of religion or belief for all through our engagement in multilateral fora and our programme funding. We are committed to empowering women and girls around the world through our international work. The UK seeks to support quality, inclusive, and safe education systems that provide the knowledge and skills children need to thrive. Key to this is inclusive education which fosters respect between genders, which we support through several of our programmes and investments. For example, the UK's Education Quality Improvement Programme in Bangladesh (2021-2027) programme is enabling adolescent girls to stay in school by integrating gender-responsive approaches in national curricula and trialling innovative methods to support girls to remain and learn in schools.

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 the introduction of a Commissioner for Older People and Ageing in England.

Answered by Alison McGovern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

DWP offers employment support for eligible older people through the network of Jobcentres across the UK.

The White Paper published on 26 November focuses on support for people who are
economically inactive, people who are looking for work or want to progress, and people who are at risk of economic inactivity despite having a desire to stay in work. This includes and goes beyond people who are claiming benefits. The new national jobs and careers service will be instrumental in achieving this objective. This service will be available for anyone, including older people, who wants to look for work, wants help to increase their earnings, or who wants help to change their career or re-train. The service will be tailored to local needs.

We are committing to the establishment of ‘collaboration committees’ to further develop the reforms set out in our Pathways to Work Green Paper. These we will bring together groups of people for specific work areas, collaborating with civil servants to provide discussion,
challenge, and recommendations. Each group will have a different mix of people including older people.

The department also engages with employers to ensure their recruitment practises attract and support the retention of older people and encouraging employers to sign the Age-Friendly
employer pledge.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps she is taking to reduce delays in the administration of Carer's Allowance; and what steps she is taking to inform carers about the Carer's Allowance earnings threshold.

Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

Recruitment and deployment of additional resources is taking place to enable the Carer’s Allowance (CA) unit to meet the consistent increased demand, which should reduce the clearance times for new claims to CA.

DWP has reviewed its communications to ensure the increase in the CA earnings threshold from 7 April 2025 is clearly visible. These include:

• Advice on GOV.UK,
• Annual benefit uprating notification letters. These are issued to customers over a 7-week period from the beginning of March, and include the new weekly rate of CA and the new earnings limit,
• Use of our advocates’ platform, such as Carers UK,
• Clerical claim form supporting notes,
• Upskilling our telephony agents who deal with inbound customer enquiries,
• Focussed media coverage on the CA threshold increase - press releases, Facebook etc.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to ensure UK aid supports women facing persecution due to both their faith and gender.

Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The UK remains strongly committed to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) for all abroad. It is our firm opinion that no one should live in fear because of what they do or do not believe in. We are championing the right to FoRB and promoting tolerance and mutual respect through our engagement in multilateral fora, our bilateral work, and our programme funding.

We are clear, too, that we will work to advance gender equality and empower women and girls through our international action. We focus on those with intersecting forms of disadvantage where the risks are extreme.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office works to ensure that Official Development Assistance (ODA) is allocated to support those who are most vulnerable and most in need of this assistance irrespective of race, religion, or ethnicity. This includes minority religious or belief communities, who are assessed by our partners when determining those most in need of protection and assistance.

Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps he is taking to ensure the delivery of freedom of religion or belief work in his Department's (a) diplomatic and (b) development efforts.

Answered by Stephen Doughty - Minister of State (Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office)

The UK is championing the right to freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) and promoting tolerance and mutual respect through our engagement in multilateral fora - including our position at the United Nations (UN) and Article 18 Alliance - through our important bilateral work, working collaboratively with the Special Envoy for FoRB, David Smith, and our programme funding. This includes the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office's (FCDO) designated programme for FoRB-focused projects overseas, the John Bunyan Fund (JBF).

The JBF supports a range of projects aimed at protecting and promoting FoRB. The FCDO works to ensure that Official Development Assistance (ODA) is allocated to support those who are most vulnerable and most in need of this assistance irrespective of race, religion, or ethnicity. This includes minority religious or belief communities, who are assessed by our partners when determining those most in need of protection and assistance.