Question to the Department for Transport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, with reference to the report commissioned by the Office of Rail and Road entitled Temple Mills Depot – Independent Capacity Assessment 2025, published on 31 March 2025, what steps her Department is taking to increase the level of capacity available for new operators to run cross-channel services.

Answered by Simon Lightwood - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Transport)

The Department welcomes the continuing work by the independent Office of Rail and Road (ORR) to assess the various access applications for Temple Mills Depot, including the Independent Capacity Assessment. We expect the ORR to publish its final determination of the various access applications by the end of the year.

The Government recognises the significant interest from a number of new entrants seeking to launch services and is working to establish a thriving and competitive market, which will ultimately benefit passengers.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many households on Universal Credit had (a) five, (b) six, (c) seven, (d), eight, (e) nine and (f) 10 or more children since November 2018.

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

The latest statistics for the number of children in households on Universal Credit are available on Stat-Xplore for November 2024. As statistics for the number of children are only available from April 2019, the table shows the data for November 2019 to November 2024.

Total number of households receiving a Universal Credit payment, with five or more children in the household, November 2019 to November 2024

Source: Households on Universal Credit dataset

Notes:

1. Statistical disclosure control has been applied to this table to avoid the release of confidential data. Totals may not sum due to the disclosure control applied.

2. Award, entitlement and payment information may be missing for a very small number of households on Universal Credit, where more limited information is entered onto IT systems.

3. Users are advised that these statistics have ongoing work to improve the data quality and so are subject to revision.

4. Figures for November 2024 are provisional. These figures will be subject to revision in subsequent releases. It is expected that overall provisional figures will be within two per cent of their revised figure in future releases.

5. Revised figures for households on Universal Credit are published quarterly in February, May, August and November. With each publication, the previous 2 years are revised. This means that the totals in this table may vary slightly from the statistics published on Stat-Xplore for November 2019, November 2020, and November 2021.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether she has made an estimate of the value of Access to Work claims waiting to be processed.

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

We have taken claims as those currently awaiting payment.

Estimating the value of outstanding Access to Work (AtW) payment claims would incur a disproportionate cost. To produce an estimate, each claim would need to be manually examined to determine the amount being claimed.

The number of outstanding payment claims currently stands at 21,304.

Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and have not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. It should therefore be treated with caution.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Child Tax Credit claimants were moved onto Universal Credit in each year since 2020.

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

The number and proportion of Child Tax Credit claimants who have made a claim to Universal Credit following a migration notice can be obtained from Stat-Xplore within People invited to Move to Universal Credit dataset.

Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the average time taken was to process Access to Work claims once an invoice had been submitted in each of the last 12 months.

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

We do not record, and therefore do not hold, data on the average time taken to process Access to Work claims once an invoice has been submitted. To determine this, we would need to review all claims processed over the past 12 months to compare the date each claim was received with the date it was processed. This exercise would incur a disproportionate cost.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of Child Tax Credit claimants have been moved onto Universal Credit.

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

The number and proportion of Child Tax Credit claimants who have made a claim to Universal Credit following a migration notice can be obtained from Stat-Xplore within People invited to Move to Universal Credit dataset.

Users can log in or access Stat-Xplore as a guest and, if needed, can access guidance on how to extract the information required.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with ineligible immigration status applied for (a) Universal Credit and (b) other welfare payments in the last 12 months.

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

To access public funds benefits, individuals are required to be either a British or Irish citizen or hold an immigration status which does not prevent them from accessing public funds. The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) cannot pay public funds benefits, such as Universal Credit, to a person if the Home Office has applied a ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ condition to their immigration status.

Nationals of countries other than the UK and Ireland who have a valid immigration status and that does not prohibit recourse to public funds are subject to the same eligibility criteria as any other claimant, including the need to be ‘habitually resident’ (meaning they have made the UK their home in addition to having a legal right to claim benefits).

The Department has defined ‘ineligible immigration status’ as a claimant with a ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ condition attached to their immigration status or who have no valid UK immigration status. The Department has provided a figure on the number of individuals who undertake the Habitual Residency Test (HRT) and fail due to being a ‘Person Subject to Immigration Control’, i.e. having No Recourse to Public Funds.

There were 38,000 individuals who were refused Universal Credit due to fail reason: ‘Person Subject to Immigration Control’ between May 2024 and April 2025. The Department does not hold equivalent information for non-Universal Credit benefits and to provide it would exceed cost limits.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people with no recourse to public funds applied for (a) Universal Credit and (b) other welfare payments in the last 12 months.

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

To access public funds benefits, individuals are required to be either a British or Irish citizen or hold an immigration status which does not prevent them from accessing public funds. The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) cannot pay public funds benefits, such as Universal Credit, to a person if the Home Office has applied a ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ condition to their immigration status.

Nationals of countries other than the UK and Ireland who have a valid immigration status and that does not prohibit recourse to public funds are subject to the same eligibility criteria as any other claimant, including the need to be ‘habitually resident’ (meaning they have made the UK their home in addition to having a legal right to claim benefits).

The Department has defined ‘ineligible immigration status’ as a claimant with a ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ condition attached to their immigration status or who have no valid UK immigration status. The Department has provided a figure on the number of individuals who undertake the Habitual Residency Test (HRT) and fail due to being a ‘Person Subject to Immigration Control’, i.e. having No Recourse to Public Funds.

There were 38,000 individuals who were refused Universal Credit due to fail reason: ‘Person Subject to Immigration Control’ between May 2024 and April 2025. The Department does not hold equivalent information for non-Universal Credit benefits and to provide it would exceed cost limits.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many non-UK and Irish nationals have applied for (a) Universal Credit and (b) other welfare payments in the last 12 months.

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

To access public funds benefits, individuals are required to be either a British or Irish citizen or hold an immigration status which does not prevent them from accessing public funds. The Department of Work and Pensions (DWP) cannot pay public funds benefits, such as Universal Credit, to a person if the Home Office has applied a ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ condition to their immigration status.

Nationals of countries other than the UK and Ireland who have a valid immigration status and that does not prohibit recourse to public funds are subject to the same eligibility criteria as any other claimant, including the need to be ‘habitually resident’ (meaning they have made the UK their home in addition to having a legal right to claim benefits).

The Department has defined ‘ineligible immigration status’ as a claimant with a ‘No Recourse to Public Funds’ condition attached to their immigration status or who have no valid UK immigration status. The Department has provided a figure on the number of individuals who undertake the Habitual Residency Test (HRT) and fail due to being a ‘Person Subject to Immigration Control’, i.e. having No Recourse to Public Funds.

There were 38,000 individuals who were refused Universal Credit due to fail reason: ‘Person Subject to Immigration Control’ between May 2024 and April 2025. The Department does not hold equivalent information for non-Universal Credit benefits and to provide it would exceed cost limits.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the number of outstanding Access to Work applications was in each of the last 12 months.

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

The number of outstanding Access to Work applications in each of the last 12 months was:

June 2024 = 42,403

July 2024 = 48,270

August 2024 = 50,803

September 2024 = 54,530

October 2024 = 56,028

November 2024 = 58,112

December 2024 = 58,129

January 2025 = 60,427

February 2025 = 61,719

March 2025 = 61,674

April 2025 = 62,254

May 2025 = 62,907

Please note that the data supplied is derived from unpublished management information, which was collected for internal Departmental use only, and has not been quality assured to National Statistics or Official Statistics publication standard. It should therefore be treated with caution.

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Department for Health and Social Care's press release entitled Crack teams get patients off waiting lists at twice the speed, published on 16 March 2025, what estimate he has made of the associated impact on the reduction in waiting lists on employment.

Answered by Karin Smyth - Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)

No formal estimate has been made of the associated impact of the reduction in waiting lists on employment. The Further Faster 20 (FF20) programme continues to support trusts within the cohort to reduce their waiting lists, helping people to return to work. An evaluation across all FF20 schemes will be undertaken and made available later this year.

However, we are clear that cutting waiting lists ensures that patients get the treatment they need quicker, supporting them to stay in or return to work wherever possible.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have had their indefinite leave to remain claim rejected because they have applied to lift no recourse to public funds.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

A person applying for settlement in the UK must meet several requirements. Not meeting those requirements will result in a refusal. Having their no recourse to public funds restriction lifted is not currently one of those requirements, so no one should have been refused on this basis.

Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have asked for their no recourse to public funds to be lifted in each year since 2020.

Answered by Seema Malhotra - Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State (Department for Education) (Equalities)

Quarterly data regarding NRPF - Destitution Change of Conditions Applications and Outcomes is published in tabs CoC_01 – CoC_07 of the Immigration and protection data: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/immigration-and-protection-data-q4-2024

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many people had their claim rejected for (a) Universal Credit, (b) the State Pension and (c) other public funds due to having a no recourse to public funds condition in each year since 2020.

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

Persons subject to immigration control have no recourse to public funds and so cannot access taxpayer-funded benefits such as Universal Credit. Nationals of countries other than the UK and Ireland may have no recourse to public funds because either their immigration status prohibits this or they do not have an immigration status.

The table below gives the number of individuals who have been assessed as ineligible for public funds benefit due to being a ‘Person Subject to Immigration Control’, i.e. having No Recourse to Public Funds from April 2022 onwards (data is not held prior to this period). An individual can be a ‘Person Subject to Immigration control’ due to the conditions of their immigration status or because they have no immigration status.

Source: DWP internal analysis of UC Dataworks tables, Rounded to the nearest 1,000 decisions.

Equivalent information for non-Universal Credit benefits is not readily available and to provide it would incur disproportionate cost.

The new State Pension is based on National Insurance contributions and payments are not classified as public funds for immigration purposes. Entitlement for any payments of the new State Pension is usually dependent on the individual having a minimum of ten qualifying years of National Insurance when they reach State Pension age.

Park Homes APPG
Wednesday 11th June 2025

Found: Sobel MP Dr Ben Spencer MP Rt Hon Nick Thomas-Symonds MP Richard Tice MP Jessica Toale MP Helen Whately

Adult Social Care APPG
Wednesday 11th June 2025

Found: The group facilitated dedicated meetings with key policymakers, including Minister for Care Helen Whately

Young Carers and Young Adult Carers APPG
Wednesday 11th June 2025

Found: It was really encouraging that this included the Minister for Social Care, Helen Whately, Shadow Minister

Adult Social Care APPG
Wednesday 11th June 2025

Found: The group facilitated dedicated meetings with key policymakers, including Minister for Care Helen Whately

Global Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights APPG
Wednesday 11th June 2025

Found: Screening and Ovarian Cancer – 11th July 2023 Sharon Hodgson MP asked The Minister for Social Care, Helen Whately

Children who need Palliative Care APPG
Wednesday 11th June 2025

Found: Balfe (Co-Chair) • Daisy Cooper MP • Rt Hon Sir George Howarth MP • Steve McCabe MP • Helen Whately

Children who need Palliative Care APPG
Wednesday 11th June 2025

Found: Balfe (Co-Chair) • Daisy Cooper MP • Rt Hon Sir George Howarth MP • Steve McCabe MP • Helen Whately

Baby Loss APPG
Wednesday 11th June 2025

Found: Angie has been in touch with Helen Whately MP’s office about this and asked if there could be an investigation

Baby Loss APPG
Wednesday 11th June 2025

Found: Angie has been in touch with Helen Whately MP’s office about this and asked if there could be an investigation

Autism APPG
Wednesday 11th June 2025

Found: support is actually there - Raised issues of accessing PIP Remarks from Minister for Social Care, Helen Whately

Autism APPG
Wednesday 11th June 2025

Found: support is actually there - Raised issues of accessing PIP Remarks from Minister for Social Care, Helen Whately

Global Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights APPG
Wednesday 11th June 2025

Found: Gametes) (Coronavirus) Regulations 2020, 3rd June 2020 The Minister of State (MoS) for Care, Helen Whately

Park Homes APPG
Wednesday 11th June 2025

Found: Richard Benyon MP Sir Peter Bottomley MP Alex Sobel MP Ben Rowden, representing Helen Whately

Global Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights APPG
Wednesday 11th June 2025

Found: co-chairs and members include Nicky Morgan MP, Tulip Siddiq MP, Baroness Featherstone, Tan Dhesi MP, Helen Whately

Park Homes APPG
Wednesday 11th June 2025

Found: Peter Aldous MP Sir Peter Bottomley MP Chris Davies MP Helen Whately

Women and Work APPG
Wednesday 11th June 2025

Found: and Work APPG Parliamentarians in attendance: • Gillian Keegan MP • Tracy Brabin MP • Helen Whately

Global Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights APPG
Wednesday 11th June 2025

Found: co-chairs and members include: Nicky Morgan MP, Tulip Siddiq MP, Baroness Featherstone, Tan Dhesi MP, Helen Whately