Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
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.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
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.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
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.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
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.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
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.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
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:
Joining Year | Age Band 16-24 Joiners |
Jan-Dec 23 | 1541 |
Jan-Dec 24 | 1622 |
Jan-Dec 25 | 1520 |
Total | 4683 |
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Universal Credit claims failed the Habitual Residence Test in each month since 1 July 2024.
Answered by Andrew Western - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Work and Pensions)
The table below gives the number of Universal Credit (UC) Habitual Resident test (HRT) assessments that resulted in a ‘fail’ decision from 1 July 2024 to 31 December 2025.
Month Decision Entered on Admin System | Number of UC HRT ‘Fail’ Decisions |
July 2024 | 8,000 |
August 2024 | 8,000 |
September 2024 | 7,000 |
October 2024 | 9,000 |
November 2024 | 10,000 |
December 2024 | 7,000 |
January 2025 | 8,000 |
February 2025 | 9,000 |
March 2025 | 10,000 |
April 2025 | 9,000 |
May 2025 | 9,000 |
June 2025 | 9,000 |
July 2025 | 9,000 |
August 2025 | 8,000 |
September 2025 | 8,000 |
October 2025 | 9,000 |
November 2025 | 8,000 |
December 2025 | 8,000 |
For context, the total and average monthly number of Universal Credit (UC) Habitual Resident test (HRT) assessments that resulted in a ‘fail’ decision in each financial year from 2022/23 – 2024/25 is as follows:
Date Decision Entered on Admin System | Number of UC HRT ‘Fail’ Decisions | Average monthly number of UC HRT 'Fail' Decisions |
April 2022 to March 2023 | 92,000 | 8,000 |
April 2023 to March 2024 | 99,000 | 8,000 |
April 2024 to March 2025 | 100,000 | 8,000 |
Notes:
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
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.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what the expenditure on the Timms Review of Personal Independence Payment is, including payments to external contractors and panel members.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Members of the Timms Review steering group will be paid at a rate of £300 a day, with an expected time commitment of up to 5 days a month. The Review’s two external co-chairs, who were appointed in October 2025, are paid at a rate of £400 a day, with the same expected time commitment. In addition to their fees, members of the steering group and the co-chairs will be reimbursed for any reasonable expenses, including travel, accommodation and the costs of any accessibility requirements required in the course of their work on the Review.
This approach is to remove financial barriers to participation, ensuring no one is excluded due to cost, and is based on strong feedback from disabled people and other experts.
The Department also put in a contract with The Public Service Consultants (PSC) to support the Review. This is the first time that the Government has undertaken co-production on this scale, and we want to ensure we have the expertise to get it right. The contract was signed by the Department on 29th December 2025. To date, there have been no payments through this contract to them as external contractors.
Asked by: Helen Whately (Conservative - Faversham and Mid Kent)
Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:
To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much has been paid in fees and expenses to external members appointed to the Timms Review.
Answered by Stephen Timms - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Members of the Timms Review steering group will be paid at a rate of £300 a day, with an expected time commitment of up to 5 days a month. The Review’s two external co-chairs, who were appointed in October 2025, are paid at a rate of £400 a day, with the same expected time commitment. In addition to their fees, members of the steering group and the co-chairs will be reimbursed for any reasonable expenses, including travel, accommodation and the costs of any accessibility requirements required in the course of their work on the Review.
This approach is to remove financial barriers to participation, ensuring no one is excluded due to cost, and is based on strong feedback from disabled people and other experts.
The Department also put in a contract with The Public Service Consultants (PSC) to support the Review. This is the first time that the Government has undertaken co-production on this scale, and we want to ensure we have the expertise to get it right. The contract was signed by the Department on 29th December 2025. To date, there have been no payments through this contract to them as external contractors.