Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many individuals granted Indefinite Leave to Remain since January 2025 had previously claimed means-tested benefits during their qualifying period of residency.

Answered by Mike Tapp - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Home Office)

The information requested is not held in a reportable format and could only be obtained at disproportionate cost as it would require a manual trawl of case records to retrieve.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how his Department is using powers within the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Act 2025 to help identify fraud in the welfare system.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The Fraud, Error and Recovery Act will deliver on the government’s manifesto commitment to safeguard taxpayers’ money and demonstrates the government’s commitment not to tolerate fraud, error or waste anywhere in public services, including the social security system. It will reduce public sector fraud and error and allow the more effective recovery of monies owed to government. It includes powers to modernise DWP’s investigation powers to help prove or disprove suspected fraud more quickly and allows DWP to take greater control in our investigations into serious organised crimes through new powers of entry, search and seizure.

All powers in the Act are underpinned by a principle of fairness and proportionality, with numerous safeguards and independent oversight in place. The measures in this Act will provide benefits to the taxpayer of £2.1 billion by 2030/31, part of wider plans that will save £14.6 billion.

In December 2025, DWP launched a 12-week consultation on three Codes of Practice which, once finalised, will be laid before Parliament and will support delivery of key measures in the Act.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people recruited by his Department were aged 16 to 24 in each calendar quarter since 1 January 2023.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

As at 31 December 2025, we can confirm the following joiner data for the 16–24 age band:

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what information his Department holds on the number of people that claim Carer's Allowance and do not live with the person they are caring for.

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.

Published information on the number of people in receipt of Carer’s Allowance using DWP administrative data, and information on benefit receipt on a household and benefit unit basis is available through the Family Resources Survey (FRS), on Stat-Xplore, with various geographical breakdowns provided.

You can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest user and, if needed, you can access

guidance on how to extract the information required. There is also Family Resources Survey data on Stat-Xplore: user guide available.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what progress she has made on considering the industry feedback on introducing BESS to the Environmental Permitting Regulations.

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

The Government is committed to ensuring grid-scale batteries remain as safe as possible and we are exploring options to enhance safeguards to manage the potential environmental and public health risks associated with grid-scale battery energy storage system (BESS) sites. We are currently considering responses to the Government's recent consultation on modernising environmental permitting for industry, which asked for views on potentially including grid-scale BESS sites within environmental permitting regulations.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will hold discussions with the Electrical Storage Health and Safety Governance Group on introducing BESS to the Environmental Permitting Regulations.

Answered by Angela Eagle - Minister of State (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)

Defra officials have regularly attended Electrical Storage Health and Safety Governance Group meetings, where the proposal of potentially including battery energy storage system (BESS) sites into the Environmental Permitting Regulations has previously been discussed. Officials will continue to engage with the Group, and other key stakeholders, as part of BESS policy development.

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

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, when she plans to publish the official response to the public consultation on Environmental Permitting Regulations which concluded last year.

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

The Government response to the public consultation on modernising environmental permitting for industry will be published in due course.

We welcome the input received from respondents to the consultation. The reforms will support innovation and improve the permitting framework.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the total cost was of centrally provided career coaching, career transition, or redeployment support accessed by Department for Work and Pensions staff in each calendar quarter from Q1 2023 to the most recent quarter for which data is available.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The table below covers the period from April 2023 to December 2025 for spend relating to centrally provided career coaching, career transition, or redeployment support accessed by DWP employees and March 2023 to August 2025 for spend relating to centrally provided career coaching within Talent, accessed by DWP employees.

* For the Leaders Like You programme in Year 1 (2023), payments to Ernst & Young were made monthly. For ease of presentation, the 2023 figures are shown quarterly in the table. From 2024 the payment changed from monthly to a single annual invoice.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many individuals have been ordered to make repayments to the Department after being convicted of benefit fraud in a) 2025 and b) 2026.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

We take action to recover debt on every conviction for benefit fraud through our debt recovery processes or through recovery under the Proceeds of Crime Act where appropriate.

The fraud classification on our Debt Management system includes people who have accepted a caution or an administrative penalty, as well as those who have been convicted. We cannot identify if someone has been specifically convicted of benefit fraud without looking at each individual case.

We do however report on the number of prosecutions yearly in the Annual Report and Accounts. Last years can be found here: DWP Annual Report and Accounts 2024 to 25, page 114.

Figures for year ending 25/26 will be published in summer 2026.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what checks does his Department carry out into the ongoing circumstances of those claiming Carer's Allowance.

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

When an award of Carer’s Allowance is made, the customer is issued with a written notification letter advising of changes in circumstances they need to declare that may affect their entitlement. This is to ensure DWP holds the correct details for them. This letter also details how to contact Carer’s Allowance to declare any change, via contact number, postal address and GOV.UK details for the online service.

Annual benefit uprating letters advise the customer on the new rates of Carer’s Allowance due to be paid, any change to earnings limits, and remind the customer of the changes they need to notify to DWP, and how to do so. DWP has been working with partners such as Carer’s UK to support customers better in understanding fully their obligation to report changes in their circumstances, including employment.

DWP takes a range of action to ensure the veracity of benefit awards, including:

• Targeted Case Reviews (TCRs): DWP conducts reviews to verify that customer circumstances (income, savings, and household) match their records.
• Data Matching and Analytics: DWP uses data from HM Revenue & Customs to verify employment and income, using the Verify Earnings and Pension (VEP) system to help prevent fraud and error.
• New Legal Powers: The government is introducing legislation - such as the Public Authorities (Fraud, Error and Recovery) Act - to give DWP enhanced powers to require banks to share data that may indicate potential overpayments.
• Internal Process Reviews (IPRs): DWP conducts these reviews to ensure that interactions with customers follow correct operational processes, using feedback to make improvements.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what is the total value of contracts awarded to private contractors for (a) Universal Credit assessments (b) PIP assessments and (c) Disability Living Allowance in each financial year since 2019-20.

Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)

The contracts awarded in the period of the question were / are to deliver assessments in support of Personal Independence Payment (PIP), Work Capability Assessments for Universal Credit and Employment and Support Allowance and a range of other benefits including Disability Living Allowance (Child). All contracts were awarded as multi year agreements. The attached links sets out the total values awarded per contract/contractor.

Please note, the contract value is the total estimated value of the contract at the point it was awarded and subsequently extended. Contract spend is the actual amount of money paid to suppliers during the contract period and can be different to the contract value as a result of a variety of factors (e.g. over/under delivery, changes in volume, demand and other variations to contract).

PIP Contracts (31 July 2012 – 6 September 2024)

Total Contract Value: £1,787,043,988

Lot 1 - Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Assessment Service - Contract Extension - Lot 1 - Find a Tender

Lot 2 - Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Assessment Service - Contract Extension - Lot 2 - Find a Tender

Lot 3 - Personal Independence Payment (PIP) Assessment Service - Contract Extension - Lot 3 - Find a Tender

HDAS Contract (29 October 2014 – 6 September 2024)

Total Contract Value: £1,297,737,098

https://www.contractsfinder.service.gov.uk/Notice/9bdd9fa5-0a4c-4484-a853-702b9683db80

FAS Contract (2 October 2023 – 31 August 2029)

Total Contract Value: £2,769,913,640 (including Lot 5)

Lots 1-5 - Functional Assessment Services (FAS) 2023 - Find a Tender

(NB – Lot 5 is managed by Department for Communities)

Found: Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions Helen Whately responded on behalf of the Conservative